Blade of Destiny
by Maloncanth
Summary: The Blade of Destiny is the object which empowers the digital world's Keepers to recall the digi-destined in times of dire need. Follows after 02, started writing again after a year of inactivity... R
1. The Crystal Sword

****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. And b4 y'all ask me whether this is Takari or Daikari, I don't know, it could go either way. =P

Blade of Destiny

Chapter I: The Crystal Sword

The great fortress Aachadon rose above its surroundings, a truncated pyramid of ancient black marble masonry. The construct towered above all else in the area, lying on the horizon, it blotted out the sun where it attempted to rise and seemed to emit dark clouds that shrouded the sky from all warmth. All that was viewed with it in the background seemed stained with darkness from the inky blots on the trees' watercolor to the gray and black that marred the brown dirt that floored much of the digital world.The area is silent as the vast majority of digimon in the area had long since fled. All that stirred upon the dark flagstones of the fortress exterior were tufts of grayed grass, ruffling under the direction of uneven gusts of wind. The air was as chilled as the smooth black surface of the 

Quite suddenly, the ground shook with the ferocity of an earthquake, cracking the flagstones past the ways they were already cracked. The trees rumbled and swung about wildly under the combined force of wind and earth. Near the edge of the trees, multiple holes opened from the ground, toppling timber and revealing more than a few digimon apparently in a grouped assault despite some of their alignment differences.

A lone humanoid figure stepped forward from the fortress. A face that looked almost human aside from the crimson red eyes. Black hair, streaked with flaming red and flowing black cloak blowing in the wind finished off the image. Even as he descended the steps from the entrance, the wind seemed to still in awe.

"Well well…" 

The dark figure observed the various digimon appearing before it. His gaze wandered from Tyrannomon to Kiwimon, Apemon, Musyamon, Cyclonemon, a pack of Monochromon and even Andromon. The Monochromon, giant metallic rhinoceroses had burrowed through the ground from some distance off to land here. The only thing important enough held within Aachadon to cause this amount of cooperation among digimon usually poorly disposed to each other made it obvious what it was they wanted.

"What have we here? Fools picking just the moment Aachadramon and the other guardians are not present. I wasn't aware we were _this_ fear inspiring."

"Cut it with your senseless talk. You know exactly what we're here for." Apemon growled. The yellow furred monkey digimon was already brandishing its bone stick, ready to fight.

"You would be well advised to hand over the sword now or we will be forced to…" Andromon was interrupted by the lone figure who was the size of a normal human and as such, apparently much smaller than the metal armored ultimate. 

"You can have the Destiny Blade, over my dead, dissipated data."

"As you wish, Fraramon." They shouted in as close to unison as they could manage. 

"Pummel Peck!"

"Arm Bomber!" 

Kiwimon, the ancient and flightless bird and Cyclonemon, the yellow skinned dragon launched the first attacks. 

"Wall of Fire." At that order, Fraramon calmly retaliated with a glowing shield of flames, dissipating the projectiles. The ultimate digimon of Aachadon came out unscathed.

"Heat Katana." Fraramon became a blazing streak of fiery light. The digimon turned comet dashed forward, tearing up the flagstones as he moved at impossible speeds and struck mercilessly. He blew past both Cyclonemon and Kiwimon and when he stopped, it became apparent he held a pulsing red blade of fire in his black gloved hands. With surprised yelps, both Cyclonemon and Kiwimon dissipated, to be reconfigured and reborn at some point in the future.

"VOLCANIC STRIKE!" A fast but damn casual looking leap high into the air brought Fraramon out of harms way as a line of pyrotechnics materialized where he once stood, courtesy of the gang of Monochromon. Musyamon, the virus samurai followed him into the air.

"Blaze Blast!"

"Shogun Sword!"

"Heat Katana!"

The Blaze Breath from Tyrannomon struck dead on. Fraramon didn't even blink as he charged through the fire attack fairly untouched and brought his flaming blade to bear against Musyamon's upwards stroke. A roar of pain and Musyamon was wiped out in the mid-air exchange. 

"I'll handle him." Andromon said in his relatively monotone voice as it charged Fraramon upon his landing lightly on the flagstones. "You guys get the Blade and escape as quickly as you can!"

Andromon's tackle was strong, being an ultimate level and technically, fairly equally matched with the infamous Fraramon but the humanoid ultimate digimon hadn't been sticking around Aachadon for its scenery. The stone slabs cracked beneath the impact as the two collided. Andromon went flying backwards through the air but managing to land on his feet with some warping in his arm armor in the shape of Fraramon's gloved hands. Fraramon was shoved back a few inches.

"Mega Bone Stick!"

The bone struck home dead on the chest and sent Fraramon reeling backwards, not terribly damaged but winded and staggering. Tyrannomon fired another blast and Fraramon's defense sprang into being just in time and deflected the attack, sending the ball of flames into the forest and knocking some of the scenery down. 

"Lightning Blade!"

"Heat Katana!"

Back against the wall of the fortress, Fraramon was not about the give up. The flaming blade went flying against the sparkling one and the two exploded in mid air. By the time the smoke cleared, Fraramon was gone, running through the interior of the fortress, panting as he moved to catch up with Apemon and the Monochromon. Following instructions, they were rapidly making their way to the central chamber where the Destiny Blade, an object that had caused more than a few conflicts in the digi-world, now lay.

Glancing back, Apemon saw Fraramon quickly gaining on them. Seeing his concern, two Monochromon stayed and attempted to tackle Fraramon. The digimon leapt over them and quickly disposed of them with his Heat Katana. Likewise, Apemon's bone stick was rapidly getting rid of Bakemon that attempted to move against him.

"Lightning Blade!"

"Blaze Blast!"

The attacks streaked down the long, straight hall from the entrance, coming forward as they closed in on their target. Cursing the attackers, Fraramon flung a Heat Katana randomly backwards and fortunately for him, he took only minor damage, having his own attack absorb the brunt of them but now, Apemon and the remaining three Monochromon were drawing ahead. He knew he would be far too late and just Andromon and Tyrannomon alone seemed to be giving him more than he could handle already. 

"Gatling Attack!"

Fraramon turned to receive the rockets smack in the stomach. With a grunt, he was blown aside, heavily battered. The explosions rocked the corridor, causing a shower of dust and smashed pieces of the stone roofing above. The dust dissipated slowly as the echoes rebounded distantly down the dark and dismal hall. Shaking debris from his hair, Fraramon got back up and kept on going, taking the heat from another Blaze Blast along the way. Soon, he reached the central chamber. The obsidian walls glistened in the faint candle light. However, their shine was dull in comparison to the object held delicately upright on an alter in the center which Apemon was rapidly approaching, his back protected by two Monochromon. The yellow furred primate leapt forward and grabbed the crystal sword from its alter. Fraramon entered the chamber fully just moments later.

"Drop it. Drop it _now_." The digimon said in a threatening tone. With a sudden clenching of gloved fists, bright flames formed on the hands, preparing for a good double Heat Katana. 

"Just try it!!" With a rumble, Tyrannomon and Andromon arrived in the chamber. Tyrannomon, though the weaker of the two, towered to the chamber's roof, its head scraping the stone roof. Andromon clanked forward as well.

"Five on one odds." Apemon reported the monkey unnecessarily. "I suggest you give up now and leave quietly. We will not allow evil digimon to remain in control of the digi-world's future!"

"As I said." Fraramon replied. "Over my dead, dissipated data!" His answer was punctuated as the flames on his hands erupted more brightly than ever. Despite the outnumbering, the digimon was prepared to fight it out to the end.

"Heat Katana!" 

Before anyone could react, Fraramon had reduced the remaining Monochromon to shattering data and turned to deal with his three remaining foes.

"Mega Bone Stick!"

"Blaze Blast!"

Fraramon's arm came up and blocked the blow easily enough, despite Apemon's efforts to press the attack. Tyrannomon joined in with blaze blast, sending a constant stream of fire at Fraramon, who held it off with Wall of Fire. 

"Fireseal!"

With a massive burst of energy, Fraramon seemed to explode, knocking both champion digimon away from him. The crystal Blade of Destiny was knocked from Apemon's hands and landed in the corner of the chamber. Landing lightly from his attack, Fraramon dove for it and dropped it again as a Lightning Blade attack hit him, eliciting a grunt of pain and a roll out of the way of another Blaze Blast. Andromon retrieved the sword from the floor.

"I said _drop it_!!!" Fraramon yelled as he formed another Heat Katana. The arc of fire flew through the air and hit Andromon, causing a roar of pain. The attack melted most of the forward armor off, nearly slicing the android in two. With more yells of their attacks however, the two champion digimon were still going at it. Heat Katana dissipated the Blaze Blast. The bone stick caught Fraramon on the side of the head, knocking him flying to impact against an obsidian wall. Slowly, he staggered back to his feet and then down to a knee again, breathing hard. 

Just then, before the battle could continue further, the roof of the building collapsed into a smattering shower of rock and destroyed brick. A dripping wet digimon, quickly descended through the hole with an evil laugh that was just all too classical.

"Who the heck…"

"Me? Why I'm Miremon of course!" Replied the digimon. The creature brought with it as it entered, the foul smell of dead water and festering swampland. The dripping water emanated from its body which seemed entirely composed of mud and peat. The thick foggy front now rolling in outside did not seem so much a coincidence. "I really must thank you all for playing your parts so well! Understand that even if he were alone, I would have been a poor match at best for Fraramon. The same for you, Andromon." He rumbled delightedly, addressing the fallen android. "So, thank you for coming so close to killing each other for me and thank you all," He said with a pause as he grabbed the blade. "for the Destiny Blade."

"Hold it there you…"

A rather lame comeback, Fraramon though as he said those words. He managed, just barely, to stand up and confront the muddy monstrosity.

"MAGNITUDE!"

The attack involved Miremon slamming its twelve some tons of body weight on the ground and it shook the very earth, knocking everyone down again and causing the stonework of the roof to fall upon them, burying everyone in a deep layer of rubbing. Laughing wickedly though perhaps a few scales lower than the average evil, Miremon disappeared into the depths of the earth. A light drizzle fell on the ruined scene of Aachadon that seemed to reflect the mood of the place far better even than the perpetual grayness. 

---

The ground in an unknown corner of the digital world opened up to allow Miremon exit from its underground domain. The cavern he had appeared in was completely dark save for a faint ambient glow from the center of the chamber. If one looked closely enough, one could make out the spherical framework that surrounded a socket very similar in shape to the blade Miremon now held. Then, from out of nowhere, a voice spoke loudly, echoing distinctly off the walls of the cavern and turning a voice of unknown nature into a strong, mysterious and commanding voice. Its source was too rarely shown for Miremon to know exactly who it was except that whomever was behind the voice registered as far more powerful than he.

"I see you have the object which I require. You have done well, Miremon-mon-mon…"

"Thank you, lord!"

"Put the object in the socket at the center-ter-ter-ter!!!"

Obediently, Miremon reverently produced the Blade of Destiny, the sword that had caused more than a few disputes of more than two sides in the digital world, and the object it had acquired for its lord. Handling it carefully, for the near perfectly transparent crystal blade seemed able and willing to shatter at any moment, Miremon placed the sword into the socket that fit it perfectly. As it entered its place, a blinding light flared from the sword, compelling Miremon to drop the object as it developed a burning touch. As bright radiance flooded the chamber, Miremon got a brief glimpse at the figure of his master before the light engulfed him in glaring luminance and he knew no more…

"Ahh…at last, after four years of searching, I have done it…I have found this, the world's failsafe…"

---

Thunder rumbled as bright lightning flashed across the sky, leaping from cloud to cloud in the furious dance of atmospheric static. The high winds drove rain to lash against bending trees as traffic fought its way down the soaking roads. The torrential falling water smashed mercilessly on pavement and rooftops, tearing at leaning and wildly waving trees and lashing against the glass of windows. The Typhoon had only just begun striking at full force this afternoon but since it didn't do much to indoor parties, the interior of South Odaiba Public High School was well populated despite the hour as expected on account of the formal dance being hosted. 

Davis looked absolutely ridiculous in a suit. The suit was quite the formal thing. All black with a white shirt underneath. It was in fact just a school uniformed in a different color. The usual strangling tie and decidedly uncomfortable pants finished the outfit. At this point, the one single objective that held matter was to impress Kari and to Davis, it seemed that the suit was definitely not as conductive to that goal compared to his usual flaming jacket. The original was far too small now, but naturally, Jun had managed it to find an exact copy in the appropriate size.

Scanning the room, Davis failed to find the girl he'd had a crush on for the longest time. Fortunately, TK (or was it TE?) wasn't immediately noticed. The guy had grown to a fairly impressive height to fit his basketball playing (in contrast to Davis, the soccer man who remained short) and even among large numbers of others, he should have been fairly easy to spot. Instead, Davis found another two people of interest.

"Hey Ken, Yolei! Over here!" Davis shouted over the noise of music. Apparently, the students organizing what the administration defined as a 'formal dance' weren't very interested in anything formal when it came to music and having huge stereos destroying eardrums the school over seemed quite ludicrous with everyone in dress shirts and dresses. Somehow though, the two heard him or saw him and Yolei came forward, dragging Ken along who was everything short of kicking and screaming.

The poor boy was pale with fright, his countenance nearly matched the paint on the walls. Ken definitely looked more at home in a suit than Davis. However, he had also never quite grown to be a very social person and attending this event (which quite contrasted with his usual quiet and relative solidarity) had been very much against his better judgement. This had prompted Yolei to drag him along forcefully in an attempt get him to 'have some fun'. 

"Hey Ken, what's wrong?"

"Don't worry Davis, he's just a little nervous." Yolei said, smiling back cheerfully. One look at Ken was sufficient to determine that 'little' was quite the grand understatement.

"Yolei, I really don't think…"

"Nonsense! Just give this a try. I'm telling you, you'll have tons of fun, maybe you'll even get to know some girl and…"

"No, no Yolei. I'm telling you, this is a bad idea, I-woaaaahhhhhh…"

Ken's voice trailed off as he was shoved forcefully by Yolei into the throng. Davis looked worriedly into the mass of people and Yolei was just grinning until moments later, Ken had extricated himself from the crowd.

"Ken!" Yolei said in annoyance. "You're _supposed_ to _stay_ in there and meet people and…"

"Later Yolei, we've got an emergency!" He yelled over the noise, and showed them the D-Terminal he continued to carry around.

__

Digital World Emergency. Get to a computer near a phone and call **NOW**."

-Izzy

"The Digi-World _again_? I thought we finished that up years ago!"

"Well apparently something's gone wrong with it again, we have to get to the computer lab quick!"

"Man! Every couple of years, something happens to it. You'd think the digital world is my sister's car or something…" Davis complained as they disappeared down the hallway.


	2. Repeat of History

****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. (Theo Blitz does and their digimon too but this is an alternate timeline and I got his permission =P. Nifty no?)

Blade of Destiny

Chapter II: Repeat of History

Yolei's cell phone rang as the group, now in the computer lab, spied the screen they had turned on and from which they were streaming onto Izzy's laptop over at the University of Kyoto. They already new Izzy's site and they knew it might be streaming a map sort of like this since they could no longer be at the same computer all the time. Yolei answered it, still staring in awe at the monitor as it displayed the image coming from Izzy's university server.

"You did know my IP address right?"

"Yeah we did and we're seeing it from here now." Yolei replied. 

"I've managed to identify them already. My friend Tao happened to be in town and had his digivice in his bag so he scanned the digimon for me and called me from a pay phone. I'll pop 'em on your screen just now."

Sure enough, the stats on the two digimon quickly popped in a small window on the bottom left as the map of Kyoto above continued showing the two red dots, moving about. One of them just trashing buildings randomly it seemed while the other was laying down little Pacman dots as it went.

Name: Miremon

Class: Ultimate

Attacks: Magnitude, Mud Slap

Name: Ohmumon

Class: Mega

Attacks: Overrun, Terra Cannon, Golden Silk

"An ultimate and a mega, shouldn't be too hard with Imperialdramon!" Davis said at once.

"Wait! Izzy, what are those white dots."

"That's the part where it gets bad." Izzy said gravely. "From what I've seen on television, those things are some sort of upgraded control spire. If you brought Imperialdramon anywhere near Kyoto, you'd de-digivolve right away. But don't worry, we've got that covered for now. Get Imperialdramon ready. Soon as we spring the signal, get your butt over here and deal with the mega for us."

"You got it!" Ken and Davis said in unison, overhearing from Yolei's cell phone. Yolei rushed to catch back up with them as she closed her phone and charged with them for the entrance where they could digivolve their way to Imperialdramon.

---

Downtown Kyoto was a scene of utter chaos and uncontrollable pandemonium as the general public ran like mad from the dual monsters assaulting the city.The crowd was in mob mentality as military forces the world over had not had any means of defending the populace over four years ago and the people couldn't reasonably expect that they did now. And indeed they didn't. 

Tao and Shastina fought their way against the flow of the human river, fighting up the street in an apparent path to doom at the hands of the mud monster. The rest of the populace had survival to think of and paid little concern to the young couple fighting their way to suicide against the mobile mountain. Thus, the two did not receive urges to turn back, nor were they stopped by anything until just after they cleared the last of the runners.

"Ugh! What's the smell?!?" Shastina and her companion were immediately

"It's Miremon. He's straight out of a dump or something."

"He's also laying down control spires like crazy, we have to stop him!" Shastina cried. 

"Okay!" Tao declared, whipping out something that would have been very familiar looking indeed to the third generation digidestined. "Let's do it!!!"

"Harriermon, armor digivolve to…Soukouiermon! The Wings of Love!"

"Tigramon, armor digivolve to…Angoramon! The Angel of Light!"

"Whoa! I think I like these 'digi-eggs'!"

"You bet!" Tao replied, looking at his companion digimon in his armored form like Shastina was. Harriermon was now a much larger eagle-like digimon than before and now, it had received plenty of metallic armor at select places. Tigramon had grown more humanoid, almost like a standard feline humanoid from some random anime series except now, she'd managed to muster a pair of angelic wings as well, giving her a divine, angelic look. However, their admiration was cut short as Miremon appeared from behind several buildings.

"Hahahahahaha…What have we here?" Miremon said, cackling as evil as you please. "Seems I can catch some lunch without running after all!"

"That's what you think!" Tao retorted.

"It is indeed, MAGNITUDE!!!!" Slapping the ground harshly, Miremon got the turf shaking wildly, throwing the teens off balance. With sickening cracks and rumbles, the two buildings on each side of the street tumbled inwards, shattering as they fell, threatening to crush the two under tons and tons of rubble. At the last possible moment, the two newly armored digimon whisked them out from underneath the falling debris, allowing it to crash harmlessly onto pavement, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Don't worry Shas, we can take this guy." Angoramon assured her partner as she flew up high and got on opposite sides of the wildly throbbing Miremon with Soukouiermon. The mud digimon slammed the ground some more but naturally, was unable to strike the flying targets.

"Lucent Beam!"

"Wing Rocket!"

The rockets from Soukouiermon and the beam from Angoramon struck with excellent accuracy, bathing the mud pile in light and then detonating a pair of high powered rockets into the mix. Miremon roared from the pain. However, the ultimate wasn't going down this easily and it turned at the two much smaller fliers and launched a renewed assault.

"Mud Slap!"

The back of Miremon melted, reshaped and formed into a giant hand. The hand fired with an arm of mud into the air. With a single swipe, both digimon were slammed hard against a skyscraper from which the tumbled their way to the ground amid the rubble sliding off the collapsing building.

"Well, that takes care of those two…" Miremon turned to the teens. "Now I'm feeling hungry again!"

"Uh oh…" Shastina whispered.

"Damn straight…" Tao replied.

Miremon charged and both teens screamed and shouted their heads off. As they did, they held their digivices forward purely by accident. The devices glowed with enormous power as the wills of their owners energized them and activated the D3's digivolution functions. That the two digimon were armored, not digivolved normally seemed to matter little to it as beams of bright light shot from the hand held objects to their respective digimon, charging them up.

"Soukouriermon!"

"Angoramon!"

"DNA digivolve to…" The glowing lights spiraled as the digimon merged in the DNA merging process. Red and white flames spiraled in streams against each other between the two digimon. Silver armor formed on the torso, arms and legs of the roughly humanoid digimon. A bronze helmet materialized on the feline head, the headgear appearing to add a beak. Snow-white angelic wings, four of them grew on the back, covering the scene briefly with white feathers. The new digimon stood up among the rubble, tossed aside easily, any pieces in the way and with a leap, was airborne, bolts of lightning crackling around it. "Goshukumon!!!"

"I…I…can't believe it! That…" Tao was silenced in awe.

"That used to be Soukouiermon and Angoramon! They must have DNA digivolved!"

"Well of course, they DNA digivolved, didn't you hear them say it just now?" Miremon retorted. "But…you two get to die anyway. MUD SLAP!" A thick stream of mud fired from Miremon's massive body and headed straight for the kids.

"Not so fast!" The double voices of Goshukumon said at once. The angel leapt in front of the kids. A blinding flash occurred as the angelic digimon spun like a tornado, deflecting the mud harmlessly to the sides. When the attack ended, Goshukumon was untouched.

"You kids find somewhere safe and take cover. This could get ugly…"

"You can bet on that!" Miremon roared. "MAGNITUDE!" A ground slap sent a tremor speeding towards Goshukumon who was airborne instantly, avoiding the attack as the ground shattered beneath it.

"Chain Lightning!" Gathering energy around itself, Goshukumon soon had a huge ball of lightning which was fired at Miremon.

"AAAARRRRRRR!!!" Miremon yelled again in pain as it took the attack. The lightning then paid due to its namesake and split into multiple blasts that set off a chain reaction, dancing off the control spires throughout the city, shattering them all and quickly terminating the digivolving restrictions in the area. The spires evidently had enough power to keep Imperialdramon away but the new spires with their rounded tops seemed no less difficult to destroy.

"You'll pay for this! MUD SLAP!!!" Miremon fired off multiple streams of mud and wet earth at Goshukumon who, with swift motions of her four wings, easily dodged them all, sending them to dissipate harmlessly behind the DNA ultimate. 

"I think it might be the other way around!" Goshukumon yelled back as she gathered energy between her palms. "Lumina Cannon!" The energy congealed into a huge sphere of blinding light, firing off at Miremon and hitting its target. The attack struck with devastating results. With a scream, Miremon was thrown into thousands of chunks of mud, dirtying the streets and walls before flowing into sewer drains or seeping into the earth.

"YEAH! Seeya around, Miremon!" Tao shouted, jumping out of cover.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet."

Both the 14 year old digidestined looked up to see a giant beetle in the air with a rider atop its back. Megakabuterimon and Izzy had arrived. "Look over there." Accordingly, both the younger digidestined were carried aloft by Goshukumon and from there, spied the situation.

"What the heck is _that_?!?" Tao exclaimed. He rubbed his eyes again but the juggernaut was still there, charging with reckless abandon and crushing apartments and houses alike as it ran like pacman gone mad. The eerie wail as it let loose a drawn out roar resounded throughout the city. Its fourteen hemispherical eyes glowed bright red in anger. The entire thing was covered in heavy armor, like a pillbug on steroids with giant spikes poking up here and there.

"Either I'm seeing things…" Shastina said quietly. "Or there's a pillbug the size of a football field rampaging through Kyoto!"

The identifier popped up on Izzy's laptop as Izzy began rapidly typing away, accessing data files on the powerful digimon in front of them.

"That's Ohmumon. The computer says he's one of the largest digimon ever recorded. Seventy meters long and from what I'm seeing now, a very bad attitude as well!"

"Attitude or not, we have GOT to stop him or sooner or later, someone's going to get killed underneath him! Goshukumon!"

"Way ahead of you, bro!" The angel replied and flew at top speed towards the raging beetle-like digimon.

"Wait! That thing's a Mega-Oh boy…"

"Izzy, I think we'd better follow them…"

"You're right, Megakabuterimon. Go for it!" Izzy ordered as he rapidly punched an email to Ken's D-terminal to get Imperialdramon's butt to Kyoto quick.

---

The glowing sphere at the center of a certain dark chamber in the digital world depicted a furious battle taking place in the real world. In a bright flash of energy from the attacker, Miremon was splashed into countless small globs of mud flowing back into the earth. The screen reverted then to the attacker.

"I do believe, my friends, we have lost Miremon. For the time being at least." The first of the digimon reclining on a couch in the chamber. The light from the orb that displayed the situation in the real world was the only light to the room. It revealed the heart-stoppingly beautiful face on a humanoid body of the first speaker, the heavily armor scaled head of a dragon and the frail body of much smaller blue-skinned digimon.

"That fool Miremon doesn't know his own limitations. If it weren't so difficult to do anything permanent to him, he'd have long since been reconfigured. He should've known he didn't stand a chance against that angel of light and love."

"Speaking of which, Darigamon." The third figure in the cylindrical sanctum said, speaking up. "Goshukumon…" The digimon began, reading out the statistics. "The DNA digivolved form of Soukouiermon and Angoramon which are the armored forms of Harriermon and Tigramon. Classified as a low level 2nd rate ultimate. Her main attacks are Chain Lightning and Lumina Cannon. Quite a powerful digimon considering it formed right on top of upgraded control spires and you have to admit, despite them being Miremon's work as far as we know, they _are_ effective."

"They would be, if they didn't all get wiped out in a single attack, Wobbumon." Darigamon replied with a harsh glance at the viewing orb before them. The screen had reverted back

"Well, to be fair, facts do speak well of both this Goshukumon and the spires though I agree with you on the vulnerability issue. In any case, neither this new digimon or Megakabuterimon, whom we all know well from study of its previous battles, stands a chance against Ohmumon."

"Well duh. Since when did two ultimates even come close to a single mega? If they did, it wouldn't be worth the effort gathering power for years and years to get there or going through some process that might as soon reconfigure you instead.

"Or just _praying_ to be some digi-destined kid's partner and hope that he'll get some funky crest or egg or other to boost you up there right away. Seriously, it's not _fair_ for us hard working digimon who actually put effort into getting to that level." The angelic digimon of the group whined. 

"_You_ should be talking, Celesmon." Darigamon retorted. "I recall you simply grabbing hold of some other mega's life force and sucking it out. How much harsh work could _that_ have been?"

"Now, now. At least Celesmon's ultimate form went about tricking megas into submission. That in itself was probably as dangerous as simply training the power to a high enough level. I agree with both of you as well." Wobbumon explained peaceably. "I hate the digi-destined 'shortcut' as much as you two and I'm sure all of the digital world's naturally raised megas do as well."

"Eh, what's this?" Darigamon said suddenly as the screen changed its view. "Pfft. It's Ohmumon and instead of wiping out the digi-destined like he ought to, he's still just doing landscaping. Just like him really…"

"Oh? That loose cannon's at it again. I was wondering where he'd gone off to when Miremon got the crap beaten out of him."

"Hmmm, it appears the digi-destined are attacking him anyway. There's Goshukumon again with her Lumina Cannon. I do believe this will turn into an interesting show and if Imperialdramon arrives like I think he will, this will get even better."

"Bah! I could take any of them on." Darigamon muttered.

"For the others, maybe. But you know as well as I how powerful Ohmumon can be when he's on a rampage like that! Just sit back and watch!"

---

"Lumina Cannon!" Goshukumon cried. The answering ball of light energy streaked towards earth and struck the giant pillbug-like digimon straight on. The light flashed in a single blinding flash. When the radiance had subsided, Ohmumon was still running full tilt, crushing buildings as it went. 

"Man, it didn't even notice us." Tao said.

"Who said it would be easy?" Izzy replied as the giant creature finally came to a halt. Its red eyes continued simply gleaming in the dim lighting of the area. Though they were uniformly the same color in the light of the rapidly fading, overcast sky, they seemed to somehow convey the message that they were looking up now, at Ohmumon's aerial assailants. "Great, I think you just got it real angry!"

"Yo! Where'd it go?"

"Huh?" Izzy looked down where the eyes had been. They were no longer there. In their place seemed to be a hole right in the ground. It was incredibly how the digimon could disappear so swiftly! "It's underground!!!" Izzy yelled over the wind from the edges of the storm currently affecting Tokyo but it was a bit late as glowing strands, golden as autumn wheat sprang up from the ground. They tore apart pavement and a few small buildings as they grew like plants on some mega fertilizer and quickly had Goshukumon in a death grip as they spurted into the air.

"Ah! That must be Ohmumon's Golden Silk attack! Megakabuterimon!"

"Horn Buster!" Megakabuterimon's horn emitted its greenish energy blast and struck the tendrils. The golden silk was cleaved apart, freeing Goshukumon as the rements writhed wildly before falling to earth and dissipating. With a roar, Ohmumon reappeared, legs rearing up in anger at the attackers.

"Horn Buster!"

"Lumina Cannon!" 

The two attacks surged towards their ground bound target and both hit, causing an explosion on the mega digimon's carapace. The giant bug returned with another Golden Silk attack. A storm of golden strands lashed out wildly, striking Izzy and his digimon out of the sky. Goshukumon was more agile in the air and managed to evade the assault. "Chain Lightning!" The great globe of electrical energy struck Ohmumon but the attack did little and was dissipated against the shell of the creature once more.

"Still nothing!" Shastina reported, squinting as Goshukumon retreated once again from Golden Silk.

---

"Alright, Imperialdramon! Let that oversized cockroach have it!"

"Wait, Imperialdramon. Remember we're in the middle of a city so you can't use Mega Crusher or you'll take a lot of people down in the collateral damage." Ken said.

"Right. Gotcha, Ken." Imperialdramon slowed down from its insane traveling speed as it swerved in the sky towards the remaining threat to Kyoto. "Hey, miss me yet?" Imperialdramon called to Izzy as he caught a falling Megakabuterimon and allowed Izzy and the de-digivolved Tentomon into his 'cabin'. "Oh yeah we did. Excellent arrival, Imperialdramon."

"Don't mention it. Now let's see…Positron Laser!"

Imperialdramon's back cannon gathered energy as it spiraled in purple bands into a huge attack. A thick beam of purple, spiraling energy was sent blasting at Ohmumon who actually seemed to feel it this time. The beam burned at the carapace but still didn't seemed to do much beyond bathing the beetle in light and causing it to wail in pain. Its shell remained intact.

"Man! Talk about a hard shell!" Imperialdramon exclaimed as it circled around for another try."

"That thing's defense is incredible!" Ken exclaimed.

"Even Imperialdramon can't put him down, this is bad news!" Davis agreed. At this point, Ohmumon began to go up in an ambient glow. This wasn't going to be Golden Silk coming up. "Uh, what's it doing?" Davis asked as Ohmumon continued gathering tiny stars of energy into a glowing aura around itself like the main gun on some sci-fi anime.

"That's Ohmumon's Terra Cannon! Get outta there!!" Izzy yelled.

"Goshukumon, get out of here! THAT THING'S FOR REAL!"

Ohmumon's energy suddenly dimmed, leaving only the light of some static sizzling about its carapace. The next moment, all hell broke loose as a blinding white beam of energy, very nearly as thick as Ohmumon itself shot into the sky. With plenty of warning, both Goshukumon and Imperialdramon managed to dodge the attack as it lit up the entire city in a brought flashing light. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the light was gone, leaving glowing particles floating about in the air, slowly drifting back to earth. It seemed the Earth was at peace again now that the beam had been fired. The energy seemed to have triggered something in the clouds or something as rain began to fall. Ohmumon's red eyes had shifted to a peaceful, barely visible blue as Goshukumon and Imperialdramon circled in shock from the attack that looked like no digimon alive could have taken. Then, with a rumble, the giant digimon dug into the earth and disappeared…


	3. Retelling History

****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. I might have gotten some timing off so please excuse that. For the six thousand year figure, I assumed Izzy was correct when he said they had about 110 years left in four weeks of summer vacation. As for Michael. Well…guess he got a crest off Mimi. Oh, top reading the Legal Poo and get reading!!

Blade of Destiny

Chapter III: Retelling History

[maloncanth@hotmail.com][1]

"He's gone. Where'd he go?!" Darigamon demanded as Ohmumon disappeared from the view of the three dimensional screen. The dragon-like digimon searched all over the screen from all angles and still found nothing save the digi-destined looking wary at the situation and then dispersing from the scrying orb's range.

"Relax, Darigamon. He's underground of course. No doubt waiting for another chance to strike with a bit more surprise. You know how the digi-destined tend to come up with brand new digivolutions and crests and all those cheap things in the middle of a battle."

"Quite right." Wobbumon said as well, supporting the angel-like Celesmon. "Besides which, he didn't have the necessary surprise to effectively hit flying targets anyway. Terra Cannon may hit hard but it's quite a draining attack as you know and missing once was more than enough. Besides, this was simply a test to gauge response time. If they could only muster that in Japan, think of what happens when we hit some other spot in the world. As we know, the largest concentrations of digi-destined are in Japan. Japan is also where the majority of the strongest digi-destined reside. Ohmumon's appearance put their response time to the test. In other words, they don't react fast enough. Our next goal is New York. That's where the final member of their team is and they'll rush there on Imperialdramon and meanwhile, I can continue. Darigamon, Celesmon, if you will?"

"Gladly!" Celesmon replied in her ever sleepy sounding voice as she rose in the dark chamber from her couch and spread her wings. Those angelic wings were blacker than the darkness of the room. 

"Well, seeing Ohmumon had the chance to utterly trash a city, I don't see why I should be left out." Darigamon remarked has he too rose to stand on all fours. "And you, Wobbumon?"

"Naturally, I shall remain here and see to things in Japan and then we shall act accordingly, depending on the digi-destined reaction time. If they maintain the speed they did just now, they should give you plenty of time to distract them which should give me plenty of time to finish here. Now, if we're all ready?" Wobbumon stood up, waving aside long hair, blue skin, long pointed elfin ears and bronze armor and black cloak. The other digimon nodded accent for the commencement of the grand plan. Summoning the Crystal Sword with a flick of his hand, Wobbumon held it and began chanting the runes carved invisibly on the blade. As he read them, the letters began outlining in red radiance and the whole chamber began to glow…

---

It was the next cloudy morning that the digi-destined met. They had gathered physically as best they could manage. However, due to the steadily growing ranks of the digi-destined and the fact they were now spread all over the world, chat rooms had become steadily more important. Even though very few other than the strongest of them, the ones in Japan and Mimi in New York really bothered to stay in touch.

Davis, Yolei, Cody and TK were looking over Kari's shoulder in the Kamiya residence. With Tai in college, Kari had inherited his computer and the room they once shared was large enough to accommodate a few people.

Tai: Explanation?

Kari: Yep. Izzy?

Iz33: Okay, here's what I got so far…

Iz33: First of all, Shastina and Tao. They were both there seven years ago in the battle against Diaboramon and they were both also there when the digimon and control spires went all global. The Christmas just before that though, they both received unmarked gifts containing their digi-eggs. Namely, the eggs of Love and Light but in a different physical design than the ones Yolei and Kari have. 

Iz33: So, that's how they were able to armor digivolve.

Beat_Down: And how did they DNA? I thought only normal champions could DNA.

"Huh? Who's Beatdown?" Davis asked, putting his face closer to the screen.

"Beats me." Yolei said as Kari typed in the question and got an answer. 

"It's Matt." Kari answered. "And Davis, back your head off and stop breathing on my monitor." Her voice compelled Davis back at once.

Iz33: Apparently not but it seems the danger of Miremon on Tao and Shastina triggered their digimon to DNA digivolve into something capable of fighting off the threat. Now, moving on to the sudden appearance of the control spires. That's one thing I still haven't fully figured out yet. However, Willis and I figured it was probably the same deal as usual. Some mega digimon intent on wiping out both worlds.

Tai: Well that would make it simple enuff. Just destroy Ohmumon. He looks like the mega behind this stuff.

"Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure about that." Yolei muttered. "Every time someone starts tossing control spires around, they tend to have plans that go beyond this. I mean come on, we just wiped out one digimon and sent another into hiding and it took us minutes to do it. Last time, it took way longer to clean up the whole planet."

"Oh fine, Yolei, so you _want_ them to have something bigger coming?

"Well no, Cody but…"

Beat_Down: Sora wants to know what's with the new spires.

Kari: Sora's in Matt's room??

For a moment, no one talked until everyone in Kari's room burst out laughing and from the chat window, it seemed a considerable proportion of everyone else was too.

Tai: ROFL!!!

Beat_Down: You are sick, Kari.

Tai: LOL, I recall all she did was ask.

Kari: TK says have a nice night. =)

Beat_Down: She says shut up.

Mimi: =P

Iz33: Can we stick to topic please? 

Iz33: Now, about those new spires, all we know is that they've got much stronger range than before and they still nail anything above rookie if you walk into their zones of control. We don't know if a digimon knows how to turn them into spire digimon this time around.

**Mimi has left the room.(Ping Timeout)**

"Huh? That's weird, I though Mimi had one of those funky hotshot connections that go at like a zillion k and never disconnected." Kari remarked.

"I guess, but I guess every connection has a bad day." Yolei replied.

**KenI has entered the room**

KenI: We've got some really serious problems. Everyone turn to the Morning News!

---

"Here he is!" A female voice cried, causing several others in the area to rush to her side. "Underneath this rubble, I hope he's alright!"

"In pretty bad shape too but fortunate to be alive considering he was badly outnumbered." One of the others muttered.

Hands attempting to pray away the rubble of Aachadon holding the unresponsive digimon on the ground backed off as a shadow fell over the enormous ceiling stone. The sun's light then destroyed the shadow, reflected off metal. In a blinding flash, the block fell from the digimon's torso in six neatly cut pieces. The hands returned and held up Fraramon in an attempt to get some sign of life out of him. 

"His aura is very weak." One of the digimon said. The monster was humanoid, like Fraramon was but clothed in a green outfit with sleeves that widened at the ends into openings resembling insect-eating pot plants and a similar collar that bracketed the long pink hair and held in place, an iridescent green cape. 

"Verdantmon, carry him somewhere inside, wherever is still standing and attend to him as best you can." The speaker was an icy blue and cloaked digimon with white fox fur at the collar and long hair that was such a light blond to be near undistinguishable from white. "Bladesmon," Blizzamon turned to the digimon who had cut up the fallen block. Bladesmon was covered in shiny metal armor and held a sword in a scabbard at each side of the waist. "Keep sifting through the rest of this crap and see there're any more survivors."

"Right." The digimon replied. 

The rest of Aachadon's most powerful digimon quickly arrived around Blizzamon and the scene of destruction. In the absence of Aachadramon, Blizzamon was in charge. Katabamon, grey eyes, hair, cloak, gray _everything_ was suddenly, quite simply, standing beside him. Tablogumon who had no humanoid form but dug out of the earth in the form of a huge, brown serpent with a great manner of bony protrusions, outsized the rest despite being one of the weaker ones here. Monsoonmon, resplendent in azure blue with matching hair, aqua eyes and black half cape arrived as well.

"Well, looks like we're all back." Blizzamon said unnecessarily. And of course, we're all back to see what happened when we were gone. Perhaps we overrated ourselves too much to leave only Fraramon to defend the area and now…I don't even know if he'll pull through or not." Blizzamon's fists clenched.

"What is with that thing anyway?" Bladesmon asked. "What within it is worth nearly killing someone for it? Especially a digimon from Aachadon itself. We may not be invincible with Aachadramon away most of the time but that doesn't mean we're at all easy to pick on. Attacking us is no thing to take lightly!"

"Oh, it's worth it alright. I've heard the Blade of Destiny controls the destiny of the digital world. Whoever holds it would be quite unstoppable I imagine." Monsoonmon said, continuing to run a seashell comb through her hair. In human form, she was always doing this. Perhaps she spent enough time underwater to become sick of hair going wild.

"I have heard that as well." Blizzamon replied, tilting his head in thought. "In fact, that does have a great deal of truth in it. Nearly six thousand years ago, the digital world was divided clearly between light and darkness. The first of the Keepers and the Four Masters established the digi-destined system to continue to maintain this balance of power. However, within two hundred years, the darkness in the world had developed a counterbalance to the light. In order to destroy Apocalymon, the system was brought to the test and the digi-destined succeeded in restoring balance to the digital world. At the end of that incident, the Keepers forged this Blade of Destiny as an easier way to activate the program. The digiworld continued its existence normally until three decades ago. Four powerful digimon of darkness had grown strong enough to threaten the balance again. Led by Gennai, the Keepers acted and the digi-destined program was reactivated though the four of them very nearly crushed it before it got off the ground. However, as the new digi-destined battled through minor dark digimon in the way, the Dark Masters as they called themselves, grew ever stronger. As they destroyed Myotismon in the real world, the Dark Masters overpowered the original Masters, sealing them away and establishing control of the digital world however, as it turned out the digi-destined were able to conquer both them and the returned Apocalymon. With its time now aligned differently, the next threat came only a few years later. Though the digi-destined succeeded there too, the existence of the Blade of Destiny leaked at some point and soon became general knowledge among the most powerful digimon at the time. The real Four Masters made no direct contact with the events of the digital world. Immediately after the last digi-destined resolution five years ago, three, to all purposes and intents, ruled supremely in power. Shadismon, Crosidramon, Tempestmon. The three fought months for the blade before Ashedramon managed to acquire it while the three were all heavily damaged. Unable to work the blade, Ashedramon nevertheless, he tapped the power of the blade and digivolved into our Master whom we know today, Aachadramon."

Katabamon nodded, speaking for once. It was a rare feat for the usually silent digimon who made noise only with the howling of his attacks in battle. "When that was complete, Aachadramon did not think he could ever work the blade within his lifetime. Thus, he did the next best thing. He chose seven 'digimon digi-destined' as his successors in hopes of working the blade someday. Blizzamon, Katabamon, Fraramon, Monsoonmon, Bladesmon, Tablogumon, Verdantmon." He looked at the group and added unnecessarily. "Us."

"After that, Aachadramon has rarely been around as you all well know." Blizzamon continued. "Shadismon, Crosidramon and Tempestmon also faded away after the Blade of Destiny was stolen from them and the digital world was once again relegated to in general, high end champion and ultimate level digimon like us to rule. In time, groups like Aachadon formed, the largest forming the current scale of power. The constant conflicts for the blade based on mere suspicions of the whereabouts of its power continued to keep the world in brutal balance and so, no group or clan cooperated with any other. Nor were any powerful enough to overcome any other as all of them chased their tails trying to hunt down the legend. But as the tales of the blade's power grew in the legends that held it, so did the conflicts about it grow until now, someone has truly found it and taken it. I don't know how much exaggeration has taken place of what it can do but I _seriously_ doubt it's enough to make it not worth taking back." 

"My thoughts exactly." Monsoonmon agreed. "We must find that thing and get it back or else something is bound to happen and without that thing, the digital world cannot activate a digi-destined program. Therefore, the duty would fall on our shoulders to both defend the weapon and to guard the digital world as a whole in the absence of higher authority." The digimon's sense of duty would have surprised the unacquainted. She was still combing her hair and said unacquainted would have questioned her sense of priorities as well.

"Vengeance for Fraramon would be another reason." Bladesmon put in, causing the group to nod in general agreement.

"And it seems that our enemies have come calling anyway..." Blizzamon said quietly, glancing at the horizon. Digimon were beginning to appear over the skyline. Unnoticed by them, a warp in the fabric of the digital world was forming over them…

---

_"We interrupt your morning financial report with an important news bulletin. A reported attack by another giant monster was confirmed just now by our personnel overseas in New York City. The source of this sudden attack is as yet unknown but experts are suggesting they are related to the ones spotted the world over, five years ago and the one which struck Kyoto causing unknown amount of damages last night. Some of our viewers may remember a similar incident in Odaiba nine years ago. So far, military officials are at a loss to explain…"_

The screen soon switched to a very static-ridden view of New York. It wasn't great to begin with, being sent via satellite but the digimon's interference just made it worse but there was still no mistaking the dragon form for a large digimon currently in the suburbs of New York.

"Oh man! First that Ohmumon even Imperialdramon couldn't put down and now this!" TK exclaimed as the five watched the screen intently. 

"Wait, New York is where Mimi is!" Yolei said next. Then, a look of horror came to his face. "And Mimi dropped off chat just before Ken came in!"

"You don't think…" Kari began, continuing the grim line of thought. "We need to call Ken! We need Imperialdramon to get the team going. If whatever was on that screen is nearly as strong as that Ohmumon, we are going to need some serious firepower!" Kari rushed back to the computer and typed a quick message for everyone to get ready to do some traveling. Davis was already at the phone, arranging a place of meeting not far from his home. When he hung up, the rest were already at the door, ready to go.

"Okay people. Let's do it!!" The energized youth shouted, much like he would have five years ago. In the quiet years after the second major crisis they had known had been resolved, none of them had taken the time to change in character in any way. The history linked to their personalities had been too difficult to forget. Now, all of a sudden, digimon had begun attacking the Earth once again without a second of warning for them. A disturbance had simply occurred and digimon once more began appearing in the real world. The kids loathed to think what was happening in the digiworld to cause this. Nevertheless, it was not difficult to revive older parts of their minds.

---

_The man's horror could not be described as his own hands raised a sword to his neck. Standing among the bodies of the other Keepers, the sword slashed across his own neck, held and motivated by those arms he no longer controlled. Moments later, life slipped away and he saw his own body lying there, among his slain colleagues and before long, his spirit was trapped…_

The man's horror could not be described as his own hands raised a sword to his neck. Standing among the bodies of the other Keepers, the sword slashed across his own neck, held and motivated by those arms he no longer controlled. Moments later, life slipped away and he saw his own body lying there, among his slain colleagues and before long, his spirit was trapped…

The man's horror could not be described as his own hands raised a sword to his neck. Standing among the bodies of the other Keepers, the sword slashed across his own neck, held and motivated by those arms he no longer controlled. Moments later, life slipped away and he saw his own body lying there, among his slain colleagues and before long, his spirit was trapped…

The man's horror…

"It's really no use going over that moment again and again you know." Wobbumon said thoughtfully even as he contemplated the legendary artifact he now held before him. The target of his speech as a crystal ball. The object glinted with an unholy light and its innards swirled alternately with deathly black and a morbid pale blue fog. To anyone else, it could have been a classic scrying crystal ball save for its small size. Wobbumon alone knew what it truly was. A sphere of crystal that trapped within it, a soul. A soul which had already taught him how to chant the blades even if he had had to rip the instructions out of it. As a result of that and his ensuing chanting, the once nearly perfectly transparent Blade of Destiny now glowed with red runic lettering. Lines and lines of information and data read only to bring about digi-destined to save the digital world. However, manifesting the process within a sword was a method that was now back firing.

__

You will not succeed, Wobbumon…

"Oh? I rather disagree with that." Wobbumon said, smiling slightly at the ball. "I've already got all the information I need out of you and you know as well as I the sword will recognize you whether you're truly alive or not..

__

You will not…

"Yes, yes, you said that already. Now…" With a flick of his hand, the crystal ball came floating to Wobbumon's other hand. In a flash of bright light, the hand had ignited in blue flame, heating the globe before forcefully plunging the ping pong ball sized sphere onto the handle. The crystal melted and flowed to fuse permanently into the sword. Recognizing authority instantly, the sword's runes glowed brighter than ever and beams of light of various colors quickly radiated from it, pointed in various directions, illuminating the dark chamber. Summoning more power, Wobbumon activated the program contained within the sword, causing light to flood the place.

Before long, the luminance subsided and Wobbumon reopened his eyes and looked back at the screen and stared in shock at the effect his use of the blade had had other than what he intended. Had he used the blade wrong somehow. Perhaps it was his imagination when he thought an ethereal voice was laughing in his head. The digimon glared at the handle in his hands.

"I wouldn't laugh much more." The digimon said severely. You can cause a few minor effects all you want, you still cannot stop me. The days of the world as you know it are numbered, Gennai." Holding the blade high once more, Wobbumon filled the room with the sword's light once more, the wild power in his hands was unbelievable. As the radiance subsided once more, the chamber was in silence and darkness save for the scrying screen. Empty…

---

"Michael, are you sure this is a good place to…" Mimi asked again. The young woman was the only member of the 2nd generation digi-destined who lived outside of Japan. Resplendent this summer day in 'extra fashionable' tank top (naturally, everything Mimi wore was extra fashionable), the first year University student was holding Palmon and sitting beside the T-shirt and shorts clad Michael. Her BF was driving the car and Betamon was hanging onto the top of his seat. 

"Trust me. This is the clearest place for miles down the coast." Michael replied as he drove the vehicle closer to the spot where he intended to intercept the approaching monsters. The small dirt path near the ocean was empty. Even in the panicked traffic and heavy military presence that would no doubt drive into the area soon, (Just so they could be rendered totally ineffective and watch as the monsters trashed the place) the road was still too out of the way to be used much. "Believe me, this is the best area I can think of. So long as we fight in this area, no one will be-" The ground shook from some huge impact not very far off. "-involved." Michael finished. All of a sudden, the woods around them were cut down by a stream of fire, blocking the road. Instinct brought the young man's foot to the brakes, sending the car to a skidding stop on the dirt path. The two occupants disembarked immediately thereafter to spot a giant form rearing up before them.

"Good grief!" Michael exclaimed as the towering digimon turned its scaled head to face them.

A rumbling laugh rolled out from the digital monster. "What have we here? Some digi-destined in America I see." Darigamon laughed once more. "You two are lunch!" he declared.

"I assume that means I won't be having any of the fun this time." The second digimon said, disappointed. "Oh well, so long as I get the next ones." Celesmon smiled cheerfully. The female digimon was no more than a strangely dressed human female, floating upon a white, strangely solid cloud next to the dragon digimon's head. She was hardly noticeable.

"Okay Mimi, let's do it!" Michael shouted. Betamon responded to the battle call at once.

Betamon digivolve to…Seadramon!

Palmon digivolve to…Togemon!

The giant sea serpent struck the water as it finished digivolving and was under the surface with a great splash. Togemon stood like the boxing cactus it was and looked no more than a regular cactus against the might of the dragon like digimon they were facing. 

"Time for some Needle Spray!" The cactus worked up into a very fast spin, sending needles flying towards the dragon. However, a ball of energy developed in Darigamon's mouth. The flaming energy grew into a huge tongue of flame, incinerating the needles before they came anywhere near the dragon. 

"Ice Blast!" Seadramon came out of the water right on cue and fired off its attacking. The huge blast of ice froze a bit of Darigamon's chest before shattering immediately.

"Breath of Dragia!" The fire increased exponentially and struck Seadramon, blasting him back into the water.

"Whoever he is, he's way too strong!" Michael exclaimed, stating the rather obvious.

"When did you get _that_ idea?" Celesmon shouted down at them sarcastically, continuing her observation of the extremely one-sided contest.

Togemon charged towards Darigamon. The dragon simply flipped its wings once, the wind sending Togemon rolling. The cactus digimon collided with Michael. The two crushed the fence and fell over the cliff…

"Aah!"

"Michael!" 

The reaction was immediate as Mimi's droplet crest of sincerity activated, causing her digivice to glow brightly.

"Togemon, digivolve to…Lillymon!" The flower child burst into being as they fell. Two arms grabbed Michael as he fell towards the water below just before he would have taken a nasty impact on the surface and carried him back to the top of the cliff, depositing him safely on the road. "Now." The agile digimon declared, winging above the treetops. "Let's kick some ass!"

Darigamon flapped his wings again, sending a burst of wind skywards. However, the small digimon wasn't blown away this easily.

"Flower Cannon!" The shot streaked in blinding green light towards the dragon who spat a puff of fire at it, negating the attack.

"Breath of Dragia!" The fire shot out at Lillymon who dodged the attack just in time. However, the attack hit the trees near Mimi and Michael anyway. A giant of a pine fell towards Mimi who could only look up, eyes wide.

"Mimi, LOOKOUT!" Michael got to his feet in record time and in one excessively daring dive, shoved both himself and Mimi out of harm's way. There was a bright flare in his digivice as this happened.

"Seadramon digivolve to…Megaseadramon!"

"Mimi! Areyoualright,speaktome,Idon'tknowwhatI'mgoingtotellyourparentsifIletyouget- huh? Whoa!" Michael's speech halted as he spied Megaseadramon towering over the edge of the cliff. "Sheez, when did you learn to do that?!?" Everyone was now staring at Michael, including Mimi who quickly turned away with a blush (being held in his arms she was) and looking at his digivice. 

"Hey, that's the crest of sincerity! Like mine!"

"I guess that explains it." Michael said uncomfortably.

"Thunder Javelin!" The lightning blast struck home and knocked Darigamon's head aside for a bit, accomplishing little else except reverting attention to the fight before a scene could develop between the two.

"Breath of Dragia!" The fire blast missed the newly upgraded sea serpent by a hair as it dodged.

"Mega Ice Blaster!" The ice blast was the ultimate digimon's response. It was Darigamon's turn to shift his head slightly to avoid this. Another puff of fire canceled out another Flower Cannon.

"Impressive. But apologies, I have a sudden urge to end this fight." Darigamon roared, getting annoyed with the two digi-destined and their digimon. "FLAME RIFT! Huh?!?" In the sky above, instead of a flame rift, the fire attack was canceled neatly by a rather enormous rift of non-flame nature opening, purple and forbidding in the sky, swirling the clouds around it like playthings. Digimon began to phase into the real world all over the place in the outskirts of New York. Quite obviously, this was not an expected effect of the Flame Rift attack. Unbeknowest to them, this was the side effect Wobbumon had noticed on his scrying screen. 

"Oh dear, what have you done now?" Celesmon inquired sleepily as if Darigamon had done no more than spill a drink. Darigamon's transformation into a more convenient human form quickly took place.

"No time, let's get out of here and scout the situation." Dragging Celesmon with him, the digimon left the two digi-destined shocked by the coast as the very earth shook with the might of the disturbance… 

   [1]: maloncanth@hotmail.com



	4. Darkness Arrives in the Real World

****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. Just as a minor note, the B of D timeline leaves the show behind on the first episode of the World Tour thing. This chapter is where the story really earns the PG-13 as it's got a bit of bleeding. Only where I felt the plot needed it though so I wouldn't be too worried. Oh yes, and you all have a few days to email me ideas for the new DD. =P

Blade of Destiny

Chapter IV: Darkness Arrives in the Real World

[maloncanth@hotmail.com][1]

As the sky dimmed back to normal luminosity, the dozens of digital monsters that had been gathered around the ruined fortress of Aachadon were now standing on roads, highways and housing development somewhere along the coast near the New York area. The stretches of suburban territory stretched in all directions as people screamed, emptied from buildings, got into cars and blew out of the area. Communications in the area were instantly jammed. At least one of the digimon in the group had the sense to eliminate human distraction. The expected accusation was not long in coming towards the five digimon and their small gang of Bakemon.

"What?!? What is this trick you have pulled?" Demanded an enraged Knightmon.

Blizzamon closed his eyes at the anticipated but to him, still incredibly stupid question. "Obviously, we would not know. We are the heirs to Aachadon. We _do not_ pull 'tricks' to get out of fights. We never need to and we never will." He boasted. 

"Enough of this! Hand over the blade now and return us to the digital world at once!" Someone else said.

Blizzamon responded initially with a laugh. "Even if we knew what happened, we'd rather leave you fools stranded here. And I say again, the Blade of Destiny was stolen shortly before we returned. We don't have it so we couldn't hand it over even if we wanted to, which we don't."

"This is your last chance…" Someone else warned in what he evidently thought was a menacing tone. Blizzamon answered with silence.

"You asked for it!" Said a digimon leaping out from one side. Blizzamon identified it as Fencermon. The roughly humanoid, slimly built digimon dashed out at Blizzamon and with the swords in his hands, slashed twice, missing twice as Blizzamon dodged aside. Grabbing one of the blades in mid-slash with a hand gloved in a very fined, almost silk-like chain mail made seemingly of ice, Blizzamon flexed his fingers. The first sword bent and snapped near the base. Quickly, he brought the blade across and deflected Fencermon's other sword with it before looping the blade smoothly around the champion digimon's guard and slashing him multiple times. Fencermon dissipated, leaving the blade fragment in Blizzamon's hand, tainted with the red of blood quickly freezing at Blizzamon's touch that seemed as cold as the expression on his face. 

Two Frigimon came at him next. Moving forward at a slower pace than Fencermon. "Subzero Ice Punch!"

"Deathchill Strike!" Blizzamon's two hands, covered in icy gauntlets came out and caught the ice punches. The ice punches' energies rebounded from the stronger force of ice behind those palms. Both Frigimon froze and then shattered into bits of data. 

A Kuwagamon jumped into the fray, charging out of the trees next. In one smooth motion, Blizzamon charged the blade fragment he still held from Fencermon with icy energy and launched it at Kuwagamon's gaping jaws. The blade struck home and dropped the insect digimon immediately. As it landed, a blast of ice from Blizzamon finished it off.

"Pit Pelter!" A Cherrymon's cherries began pelting from behind the ice digimon from behind, hoping to catch it by surprise. This was not to be the case, naturally. Blizzamon pivoted smoothly around and counterattacked.

"Blizzard Destroyer!" Thousands of ice crystals and hail shards formed around Blizzamon and swirled around him, freezing and shattering the barrage of fruit as they approached. With a motion of his arms, Blizzamon sent the move on the offensive and engulfed Cherrymon in the storm. With a groan of pain, the tree digimon fell over, very heavily damaged. Blizzamon calmed down. The rest of the crowd became a lot more hesitant. The ice ultimate digimon glared balefully at them, turning his gaze across the crowd. "Anybody else want some?"

---

"Hurry it up, men! We're in a war here!" Sergeant Brian Blainwell shouted with an almost desperate tone to his voice. 

"SIR YES SIR!" Came the usual reply as Brian's contingent of men worked diligently at disabling the guidance systems on the missiles on their rocket launchers. They would soon be heading on foot each with as heavy a piece of equipment as possible. The digimon had already proven to have fields that could disable even the most modern computerized equipment and it seemed the only solution was mechanically taking them out. 

__

Digimon…Oh, how long ago it has been? Thirteen…almost fourteen long years…Will you return? I waited four, nine, then thirteen years now. Is this the time you return to me? How long has it been for you? Are you alive after nearly twenty thousand years?

Lost in thought, the soldier didn't notice a shadow fall over them. The digimon had already arrived and spotted the weapons being rigged. Brian and everyone else felt icy blasts strike them and in moments, the entire squad was unconscious next to the dirt path.

---

"Ultimate Slicer!" Megadramon's attack struck the road as Blizzamon quickly leapt backwards in avoidance. 

"Blizzard Destroyer!" The ice blast narrowly missed the flying cybernetic dragon. Megadramon was a much more competent foe for the ultimate digimon. However, Blizzamon's attitude remained cool and confident. As Megadramon finished his series of Ultimate Slicer attacks, Blizzamon leapt straight up at the flying dramon. A seemingly impossible altitude but the humanoid digimon managed it. "Deathchill Strike!" The attack nailed Megadramon's wings, frosting them over and sending the dragon plummeting to the ground, causing a new pit in the road. It looked up to see Blizzamon coming down on it none too slowly.

"Genocide Attack!" 

"Blizzard Destroyer!" The attacks collided, exploding before Blizzamon finished his descent and with another Deathchill Strike, very nearly destroyed Megadramon until a blast of wind came from in front of the descending digimon. Flipping smoothly out of the way, Blizzamon turned to face the new opponent. Quickly gathering energy, the two digimon attacked at the same time, both using an ice attack. Blizzamon's dull, chilled ice collided with his opponent's bright, blowing snowflakes and the two blasts dissipated each other. It took no rocket scientist to see that Blizzamon was impressed at the power of the blast.

"And you are?"

From their hiding spot just off from where the whole slew of digimon had just finished gathering the last of the stragglers, Darigamon and Celesmon observed as the new figure emerged from the crowd. The humanoid wasn't in any way impressive as he strode out. However, it was impossible to tell whether he had just arrived or had been here from the start observing quietly. The only thing that really distinguished him was his nearly flawlessly passing as a human. Black hair streaked with white and a face whose skin tone passed very well as a human's. The only real thing giving it away was strange clothing by human standards and of course, the throwing of big, damaging 'magic' attacks.

"My name, is Yengsiumon." He said quietly, yet somehow getting everyone to hear him. 

"No doubt you are after the Blade of Destiny as well. Who sent you or more likely, which group or clan or whatever lame 'team' in this conflict are you from.

"Now, now. I have no 'group' as you say but yes, I am after the object you mentioned."

There was general laughter among Blizzamon and his group. Not for the first time as digimon after digimon had demanded them of the sword. Darigamon and Celesmon couldn't help but smile when they did. They still hadn't figured out that someone else, namely them, already had the Blade and had already set its power into motion.

"So what claim do you have on the Blade of Destiny, which Aachadon has held for four years now?"

"I once had the honor of fighting for this sword and had the fortune to hold it for some time a number of years ago." Yengsiumon said brazenly to the murmuring of the digital crowd. "After that, a series of events caused me to lose control of it. However, I promised a friend of mine that she could have it. I am bound by promise and I have come to retrieve it."

Celesmon's eyes widened as she heard this. The digimon was utterly divided between jumping in to help and not doing so. She fell backwards, almost causing enough noise to be noticed, sitting against the nearest tree as if hit by some psychic attack.

__

Could that be him…I can't believe I did this to him. Yet he still wants to…

~The powerful digimon, resplendent in blue and violet armor flew with lightning speed into the air. Within moments, he was in the upper atmosphere of the digital world and then was down again, just as quickly. In the sphere of energy he held, as a sparkling object. Stars didn't work in the same way in the digiworld. Stars were simply high energy particles floating in the sky. 

The smaller, slimmer digimon beside him was overjoyed. Her hair was still a beautiful, perfect black. The Celesmon of that day, years ago, the ultimate Lumiamon still sported bright white wings. Then, she had not yet been totally corrupted, her wings and hair switching colors to indicate so.

"Y-you really did pick a star off the sky for me! I-I can't believe it!"

"If you want it, you shall have it." The armored digimon replied softly. The angel beside him whispered in his year what she wanted. Meant to be a jest but…

"Consider it done." He replied simply, smiling at the wide eyes of Lumiamon. He lifted a hand towards the flowers as they strode into the palace gardens. Smoothly, he picked a flower and put it affectionately in her hair. "I am the most powerful digimon in known world." He declared. "Nothing, not even the Dark Masters or the Holy Beasts can stand in my way. If it is the Blade of Destiny that you desire, I promise you, you shall have it!"~

"You _are_ alright?" Darigamon's voice snapped her out of flashback mode.

"Y-yes! I'm fine…" Celesmon answered. Shaking off the sadness and pre-tears from her reverie, she resumed observation.

"I'll say what I have said several times this day." Blizzamon replied colder than his own attacks. "The Blade of Destiny was stolen immediately before we somehow were transported here, into this other world. However, if it's a fight you want…"

"I trust you would have no objection to telling me everything else you may know once you are defeated. Since I do not want to be accused of taking advantage of everyone else who has fought before me," Yengsiumon said coolly, taking a step forward. "I offer to take on all three of you." He finished by indicating Blizzamon, Katabamon and Monsoonmon.

Blizzamon's eyes widened for a second, then narrowed again. "Before we accept, do we have assurance you know exactly what you're dealing with? I do not want to be accused either. Of taking advantage of ignorance."

"On the contrary, I know _exactly_, what I'm facing."

"Very well then." Blizzamon said, even as he prepared an attack. "Blizzard Destroyer!"

"Katabatic Wind!"

"Rain Force!"

The three attacks, light grayish blue, blue and green swirled around each other as they struck towards their target. Without Fraramon, their combination was not complete but nevertheless, no one could deny these were powerful digimon. What really caused the gasp was Yengsiumon. As the attacks reached him, he powered up his own blast of energy, composed it seemed, from all three of the elements he was under attack from. 

"Howling Storm." Yengsiumon's blast dissipated the energy and lashed out at his three opponents with the leftovers. The three digimon split, avoiding the assault and returning with their own, ignoring their own surprise. 

"Sui Katana!" Monsoonmon had, from somewhere, produced a blade of water. Reaching her enemy first, Monsoonmon slashed overhand, causing Yengsiumon to shift sideways. The blade followed and caught the digimon's arm as it rose to block the blade. The blade halted. Instantly realizing some sort of armor was underneath, the watery weapon curled around the arm like a whip. Only minorly surprised, the fist of the trapped arm clenched and froze the weapon over, shattering it and forcing the water digimon backwards. Without Fraramon, the weapon froze with relative ease.

"Gale Kick." So quiet that people barely heard him over the bedlam of his airflow, Katabamon unleashed a powerful kicking attack which his opponent dodged. Quite unused to fighting someone equal to him on a speed basis, the two digimon launched a number of attacks at each other, managing to force each other back and do little else. 

"Deathchill Strike!" The savage ice attack came in the form of a claw as Blizzamon rushed forward. Yengsiumon's hand came up to meet it. After a second or two of pushing at each other, Yengsiumon was thrown back several inches, and Blizzamon was, utterly surprising the viewers once again, forced back several meters. As one, the three gathered energy, a shattered, pixelated looking dark gray for Blizzamon, swirls of blue for Monsoonmon and greens for Katabamon. Yengsiumon gathered his own energy again to defend against the digital attacks, white and light gray glows surrounding him. 

"Blizzard Destroyer!"

"Katabatic Wind!"

"Rain Force!"

"Energy Shift!"

The attacks ploughed into the lone digimon who's own move caught the energy. With some effort, the energy was bounced back, shattered at the attacks, though it was not difficult for them to defend against this. They did know they were in for a fairly long battle indeed.

---

"Look! There's Lillymon!" Davis shouted, recognizing the ultimate level he had first seen in New York years ago.

"Take us down, Imperialdramon." Ken said. Obligingly, the ancient dragon mega digimon descended towards the lower flying Lillymon who was accepted into Imperialdramon's passenger compartment. 

"Mimi and Michael are just north of here." Lillymon reported. "Megaseadramon's with them but there are _way_ too many digimon for us to handle. We haven't actually been spotted I don't think, seeing as we fit into the crowd pretty well there but those guys don't look like they'd act friendly if we tried to get them to return home."

"Megaseadramon?" Matt wondered aloud. "Never knew Mike's Seadramon could do that."

"There's a bit of a story behind that…" Lillymon answered with an almost imperceptible smile.

"Don't worry!" Tai replied, enthusiastic as usual. "Between the twelve of us here, we've got three megas and a slew of ultimates. We'll just have to send 'em packing if they don't do it themselves!"

---

Darigamon had been intently watching the sky for the approach of their quarry and now, his eyes widened in expectation and discovery. 

"I seem them." He said, indicating the direction to Celesmon. She had no trouble spotting them as the massive Imperialdramon was rapidly growing in size as he descended from the sky. Celesmon's attention however, was drawn back to the battle. Fortunately, she hadn't missed much as the fighters had paused to look up as if a UFO were descending slowly. "If Wobbumon was correct with his information, and he always is…" Darigamon muttered. "We're looking at three megas and six ultimates. Hmm, those two who got rid of Miremon don't seem to be present…Where could they be…"

Looking back at the digi-destined that were apparent, Darigamon found them parlaying with the digimon present. However, neither the dragon nor the angel mega digimon could make out exactly how it was that those digimon had appeared. However, with a mega and two ultimates sitting in front of them, none so far were willing to start a fight with them.

"Michael. I don't know how reliable that news report was but I got the distinct impression there was only one big one here, how'd all of _them_ come about?" Asked Tai. He was still puzzling over how to broach the subject of returning them to the digital world when they seemed to already be over the verge of hostilities.

"Actually, in the beginning, there were two. One was the big dragon thing your probably saw and the other was a woman flying next to him so that might not have showed on a camera. We were about to get toasted the dragon digimon when all of a sudden, something weird happened to the sky and all these guys appeared. The dragon and the woman disappeared then."

"They _might_ have gotten returned to the digital world through the same portal that sent these guys here…" Kari began.

"But I sure as hell won't bet on it. Mimi, Michael you'd better keep an eye open for them for the next couple of days at least but for now…" Tai sweatdropped as he looked at the group of digimon, easily larger than any group he'd ever had to deal or help deal with.

"Hmm, Izzy. I think it best if we just do this without asking. It could be a little complicated otherwise."

"I agree, Tai."

"Same here!" Davis said, pulling out a D3. "Digiport open!" 

The bright light answered from Izzy's laptop. Faced with a bigger load than usual, the process took a bit of extra time but once the blinding light dimmed, the digimon were all gone.

"Interesting…" Darigamon muttered as the digi-destined left the area.

---

Wobbumon floated high above Kyoto. This city was in the Real World but in the past, it had had as much to do with the digital world as Tokyo, the site of the first invasion when Myotismon had arrived years ago. The major digi-destined were all in America and the less attuned ones here would be unable to sense him. First a show of power from Ohmumon, then a distraction in America had evidently worked well to divert them out of Japan. He looked at the bundle of digivices he now held, courtesy of the crystal sword he held in his other hand. 

"Well. I guess we'll see what we can do with these." He whispered to himself, smiling. Holding them high, an invisible light gathered and spread in separate branches all over the place as the digivices streaked outwards into the city. Wobbumon laughed as his initial planning finally paid off. The First Act 

Tao and Shastina walked beside each other through Kyoto. Fortunately, most of the damage done by Ohmumon had been near the outer, less heavily built up areas. Still, cleanup workers were all over the place trying to salvage the place where Miremon and Goshukumon had fought. It was now lunch hour, both digi-destined having slept in after their battle the night before, and the place was quiet as they walked past, seeing the rubble and the remnants of the structures Miremon had damaged. Perhaps they were attracted by the same force that supposedly made criminals return to the scene of the crime. They had bumped into each other late in the morning and walking together, they had wandered out here.

It was still a cloudy day, so it was not difficult to notice when a sun bright light came into being high in the sky. Beams of various colors were streaking out from a point of convergence. Tao immediately pulled out his binoculars to take a look at whatever it was.

"What is it?" Shastina asked, switching his gaze from the sky to Tao holding the binoculars. 

"I don't know, the light is too friggin' bright…there!" The sky had now cleared. There was no one nearby however, to share their surprise in it and neither would there be even if people were present. "Looks like a guy floating up there, impossible as it seems. Dressed all weird with armor and stuff and…blue skin. That has to be a digimon! Unless there's something else that can…whoa!"

"What is it?!?" Shas asked again, more urgently. 

"He looked at me!"

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Harriermon commented

Wobbumon stared down, eyes wide with surprise as he saw digimon and humans down below. The visor materializing before his eyes quickly displayed the area in question with the digi-destined in question at the middle of the grid. Statistics were quickly rapped off as he descended towards them. He wasn't about to let them relate the light the process had produced to the other digi-destined.

alias: Harriermon

primary axial length: 106cm (wingspan)

perceived primary element(s): wind

digimon type: bird

digital alignment: data

main attacks: Gale Wing, Rushing Wind

classification: Class II Rookie, Level 6

alias: Tigramon

primary axial length: 97cm (length)

perceived primary element(s): normal

digimon type: holy beast

digital alignment: vaccine

main attacks: Silver Fang

classification: Class II Rookie, Level 6

"Heh." Wobbumon smirked as the raw numerical statistics poured out after the initial introductory information. They were only rookies. This would take about two seconds to finish. Then, he reminded himself they could armor digivolve. Moving from that thought, there was no reason they couldn't digivolve into something even more troublesome than Goshukumon if allowed to. "Oh no you don't." He thought to himself. Wobbumon's hand produced several needles. He quickly flicked them at the ground. Four tiny control spires, each about a meter in height rose into being around the group. "Weak, but at such close range, effective." Wobbumon thought with satisfaction.

"Talk about a bad feeling…" Tigramon muttered as the humanoid digimon alighted on the ground, observing them with decidedly evil eyes. The two rookies knew at once that they would not be able to digivolve the normal way and they certainly weren't going to have time to get rid of four spires even if they were small. She and Harriermon returned their attention to the digimon before them. He was only about the size of Tao or Shastina, wearing a black cape and bronze armor in a style not dissimilar to some mechanical or armored digimon such as Andromon that they had seen before though his was done in bronze, not the silvery metal of every one else. His ears were long and pointed like an elf's and the digimon's hair was long and gray. He sported eyes that saw into the soul, blue skin, a visor over his left eye and a crystal sword he held unsheathed, barely visible under his cloak. The sword was marked with red runic lettering. She wouldn't be surprised that a digimon like this guy here carried a sword but a clear, crystal one against bronze armor didn't seem to match well, visually. 

"Wh-wh-who are you?" Shastina demanded.

Wobbumon smiled some more, knowing full well that no one who he didn't trust would recognize the name anyway. "My name is Wobbumon." He said, stepping towards them and gathering energy for an attack. "I'm afraid you've been witnessing something I can't afford to have you tell anyone else. Why aren't you in America with the others by the way?"

"What?!? So, I guess you set up what Izzy and the others are going after in America as well. Harriermon!"

"Tigramon!"

"Way ahead of you!" The two digimon said in unison.

"Harriermon, armor digivolve to…Soukouiermon! The Wings of Love!"

"Tigramon, armor digivolve to…Angoramon! The Angel of Light!"

"Uh…once more please?" Tao requested.

"Soukouriermon!"

"Angoramon!"

"DNA digivolve to…Goshukumon!!!"

Wobbumon stood calmly with his cool smile as his visor indicated the statistics of the digimon before him quickly spiked to a much higher level than before. The digimon starting off as Harriermon and Tigramon soon ended at the top with Goshukumon. 

alias: Goshukumon

primary axial length: 201cm (height)

perceived primary element(s): light

digimon type: angel

digital alignment: vaccine

main attacks: Lumina Cannon, Chain Lightning

classification: Class II Ultimate, Level 2

"Are you done? I hope you're not expecting to defeat me with a second rate ultimate like that." He commented.

"Did you just call me second rate?!?" Goshukumon demanded indignantly.

"The problem with you two is your courage. You don't have it, you've got headlong foolishness and _that_, is going to make you pay a serious toll today. I don't think it ever even occurred to you two to run when you don't have any idea who you're up against."

"Oh, I think you'll be the one who's surprised." Tao replied. 

"Let him have it, Goshukumon!" Shastina agreed.

"Maybe I'm being a bit hard on you in this but…You've got two dozen free hits." Wobbumon said. "So long as you don't try to run of course. Use them wisely." 

"WHAT?!?" Tao said as Goshukumon flew up and charged for one massive hit. 

"Chain Lightning!" The massive attack had several seconds of charging behind it. The main blast split halfway to the mega digimon into multiple warheads which struck with huge bangs and explosions. If this had been made into a movie, its special effects budget would have been a bank's nightmare. 

"Nailed him." Shastina said, as the light began fading. She, Tao and Goshukumon were in for a collective gasp when the dust settled. Wobbumon was floating gently over a fair sized pit he explosions had created. It looked like a scene straight from DBZ.

"Eight." Wobbumon said calmly. "Take your time with the other sixteen."

"I…I can't believe it!"

"LUMINA CANNON!!!" Goshukumon roared as if volume could somehow raise the miniscule damage they were doing. The blasts of light came one after another from Goshukumon's palms. 

"Nine…ten…eleven…twelve…thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…sixteen…seventeen…eighteen… nineteen…twenty…twenty one…twenty two…twenty three…"

"Uh oh…" Tao said as their last hit struck home with no more or less damage compared to their other attempts. A shadow appeared for a split second in the dust the explosions of light threw up before Wobbumon was right in front of Goshukumon. 

"Claw of Nine Darkness." The hit was too fast for anyone else to follow but Goshukumon was caught right in the neck. She was sent right into the wall of an abandoned building going right through the wall and seriously damaging the next. If she hadn't absorbed the crashes as Goshukumon, Harriermon and Tigramon would not have survived to dedigivolve as they did now, unconscious.

"Harriermon!"

"Tigramon!" The two teens covered the distance to their digimon and knelt down beside them. Both were barely breathing. Two turned to see Wobbumon right behind them, silhouetted against the brightness of the outside.

"Damn you." Tao breathed quietly and finding nothing else to do, stood up. Wobbumon dodged the desperate punch easily, spun around and with a lightning strike, caught Tao in the arm. The crack of bone preceding the shout of pain was audible. Wobbumon brought the Blade of Destiny up and slashed across. Tao was sent against the wall, head hitting brick to strike him into merciful unconsciousness with a deep wound.

"Tao!" Shastina was received a slash as well. Wobbumon backed out of the area and slashed twice, vertically and horizontally. 

"Show me your sword's might, Gennai." He whispered. The building was shattered, quickly collapsing on itself, burying the digi-destined and their digimon under tons of rubble. This was no movie. Rubble _did_ crush things to death here. "Job finished." Wobbumon whispered as he recalled his four mini-spires and left the scene.

   [1]: maloncanth@hotmail.com



	5. Shadowed Destinies

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon ****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. Just as a minor note, the B of D timeline leaves the show behind on the first episode of the World Tour thing. 

Blade of Destiny

Chapter V: Shadowed Destinies

[maloncanth@hotmail.com][1]

Izzy walked down the sidewalk in some random, part of Kyoto. His new home, after he moved off to this city to study at his University was an apartment building that looked fairly large from its old, but still well maintained exterior, but was positively tiny once you got inside. The apartment was cheap enough for a university student to afford for a reason. All Izzy really had was an old VCR, a TV, a phone, his computer equipment, a bed and your average few tables and chairs. It looked like some forty and jobless man's apartment if not for the fact it had the absolute law and order of Izzy's organization.

As he stood in the rising elevator, momentarily envying Tentomon, whose wings had no doubt already carried him into the apartment to the tiny balcony and maybe through an open window, he glanced at his watch. It was almost six, he'd be just in time for the news and then back to relatively normal life. The only other occupant in the elevator was a smaller boy. He lived on the same floor as Izzy and every time Izzy saw him, he held a puzzle of some sort, this time being a Rubik's cube. His time seemed completely dominated by them, while he was in the elevator anyway.

The elevator pinged as it alighted onto the fourteenth floor where they both got off. Izzy never really said much to him as few really noticed him. They both turned left as they exited the lift. Izzy reached his door and put his key as the child walked past. Izzy entered the door too early to see the kid make a few final turns and deposit the solved Rubik's cube into the pocket of his baggy shorts.

Casey opened the door to the apartment he shared with May. His sister was out as usual, either shopping or dating, something like that. She was rarely home and Casey took care of himself for the most part. Somewhere out there, relatives sent in money once in a while which his sister received for her university tuition and had enough leftover to feed the two of them.

Methodically, he approached a little wooden frame attached to the wall just at the entrance to the tiny kitchen where a picture of his parents hung with your usual few red candles. Chinese in nationality, this setup was what was done when both of them got killed in a car accident. Mechanically, he lit a few of the scented straws and put them in the small urn. Long since past crying or anything, he silently returned to his room, where he spent the majority of his time in the evening. 

Opening the door to his room revealed a complete mess. The bed took up nearly half the available. Along with a closet, a huge and stuffed bookshelf and a small desk with his computer, the room could not possibly have fit anything else in it. The bed was messed and unset. It hadn't been set for as long as he moved here with his sister. Every surface without something on it had a puzzle of some sort. The puzzles occupied his mind. 

Casey spent a couple minutes fiddling with a Professor Rubik's cube, a 5x5x5 thing that was much tougher to solve. He made a bit of progress before he started up his computer, clicking an icon to get his modem to dialup and put him online. He surfed for a while, all the time with his chess program in the background. At some point, he ceased surfing entirely and switched all his attention to the chess game. He played for a time and was only jolted out of his game by the sound. "You've got mail!" 

His computer piped the news as is it were totally and utterly startled that such a preposterous thing as Casey getting mail could have happened within its operational lifetime until Casey himself caused the speakers to conclude the noise by double clicking the mail icon. The file attached did not download nor install but the computer's glow began to cast shadows all over the room. Casey was stunned momentarily out of his nearly permanent silence.

"Huh? How…" A soft music began playing within his mind as the shadows deepened. The tone was both sad and mysterious and in the background, as if someone wanted to speak to him in a voice distorted by wails of darkness. Only to him, the images didn't seem dark. The light brightened and the shadows deepened in response. The wave of the shadows across what was once his room deepened in complexity. Eerie wails called out, over the piano as blue light washed over his field of vision. Now, he could hear the sea, the cacophony of sounds somehow did not collide with each other but broadcast themselves with each other harmoniously. Briefly, he saw a scene of a strange place he had never been to, yet looked perfectly right in his mind. Through the blue tinge of the scene, he could see a palace of running water, stone blocks moving in an endless waltz, patterning themselves to control water flow as tides rose and fell. The scene rippled as if a drop of water had struck the pond's surface. More appeared before the entire sight simply faded away, leaving the lightly built eleven year old back where he had been.

The brief window of the email being trashed automatically appeared. Its work was done. Casey held up an object that had appeared in his hand. The digivice glowed brightly but soon settled down. The surface of the mechanism was done in swirls and oil patterns of blue. He held it to his cheek for a moment. He didn't know what the surface was made of, but it was ice cold.

---

Jophio gingerly held the ice pack to a bruise that had quickly materialized following a hard punch to the head just above the eye. This was, at the moment, the only real one anywhere on his person. He'd been fairly successful for some time with his strategy of avoidance until today, caught off guard out of school. The icy application done, he closed the freezer and opened the fridge below. Quickly grabbing a can of Pepsi, he closed the fridge once again and entered the living room of his apartment, passing his mother who was going through bills and checks and all that sort of crap on the table while the news played on the television.

She glanced up as his son passed. "Jo! What happened?"

"Oh, it's…nothing mom." Jophio said, smiling, opening his drink and tearing off the cap in one smooth, practiced motion.

"Let me see that." She said, reaching for him.

"It's okay." Jophio reassured her, continuing down the hall to his room and evading his parent's proposed examination of his injury.

"Are you sure? Did you get into a fight again or what…"

"No, I just hit something on the way home." He lied, smiling.

"Okay…" His mother said doubtfully as he reached his room and entered.

"Besides." Jophio said to himself quietly. "I just smile at them and they leave me alone afterwards…" He reassured himself that his deception had caused no harm.

He turned his computer on. It was a fairly strong one and with a cable connection, it didn't take long for him to be running and online at which point, he immediately went over to Hotmail. Logging in, he quickly found his inbox filled with several unread messages. A lot of them were junk mail but one with an attachment caught his eye. He quickly opened it and quickly, his screen began glowing.

"Wh-wha?!?!?" His mouth gaped in utter surprise as his room was flooded in a blinding radiance. Soon, he found himself sitting on his chair in a planescape of pure gray. A sad music began playing either to his ear or within his mind. He could not tell which. The tune was simple but seemed to describe a place he'd never been to, yet knew exactly the image of. He stood up, startled and his chair dissipated, leaving him standing in a place where pure white extended as far as the eye could see. For a split second, he saw the image. A city bathed in gray smoke that appeared only briefly in the omnipresent gray. The streets were narrow, a miserable city of sleepy factories… Then, slashes of red tore open the fabric of his universe. Before long, the slashes had spread their taint and he was in a land of pure fire burning away his soul. The sound of distant, crackling flames overwhelmed the quiet music. "Ahh…" He shouted in surprise, falling down backwards. The flame faded from his eyes, sending him back to his room, sitting on the carpeted floor. He lifted his hand, knowing his face was probably unsure of what expression to put on. The digivice in his hand was textured with flaming patterns of fiery reds and yellows, mixing into countless orange tones. After a few moments of admiration, the nine year old's senses came back in and he almost dropped it again. The surface seemed to burn with the heat of fire.

---

Rina charged into her utterly, utterly messed up room and slammed the door. Indeed, it barely did so, brushing against at least two things and losing momentum as a result before actually landing on its frame. The resulting crash was apparently of a level the sixteen year old young woman deemed to be insufficient. This got her even higher on the anger scale if that was possible and she charged directly for her computer. 

It was an immensely powerful machine, a super computer by the standards of nearly everyone at her school at least and fortunately so too as she was obviously in no mood to be waiting very long. The crashing course she had led through any amount of imaginable junk in her chamber had probably irritated her some more. Indeed, her room was so full to the brim, despite its fairly large size. Jagged pieces of junk jutted out throughout the room. They literally formed a canopy on which hung drying and long since dried paintings, the odd piece of clothing and whatever else she had thrown and had landed on the crown of one of these unnatural trees and then get abandoned by the law of gravity. Everything from watercolor paintings to scribble sheets to random pieces of poetry could be found here, in what could be called a physical incarnation of Rina's heart.

The machine finished booting quickly and she quickly ran off a few routine things, opening Napster and ICQ were only some of them. Netscape was soon open as well, guiding her through the net. The distinct sound of ICQ beeped as she received a message.

_I saw your painting at the exhibit, it was great!_

Too bad everyone else just notices everything else on the report card… She answered dryly. She'd just tossed her mid-term report somewhere and she wasn't about to touch the thing again but her mind ran over it again and again and the anger fed off that. Sixties in all four except art, where she nearly hit a hundred, translating to an average in the seventies. Except all her parents would see would be the sixties. 

_Sooooo unappreciated…_

"Why the _hell_ can't they just see what I'm _good_ at and be _satisfied_?!?" She yelled into the air. Her computer did not respond. Even the ICQ beacon remained silent. Absently, she wandered over to yahoo and logged onto her mail account. She wasn't paying much attention as she went through junk mail, a few chain messages, some fool jokes or others, the occasional real email of value which she noted down, etc. The next email didn't seem any different from the last as she went through them.

_Junk mail sucks…_ She thought tiredly. Her computer responded by loading the next email as she had instructed.

_Boooorrrriiinnnnngggg…_ She thought tiredly. Her computer responded by glowing brightly. Suddenly, Rina was far from bored as she gazed at the brightening screen. _What the heck_?!?!? Beams of light radiated from her large monitor and within moments, flooded the room, almost threatening to bleach everything in it from the sun-like intensity of the radiance. The rainbow of light flooded the room in waves, eventually blending into a solid, uniform white. The glare lessened but Rina was no longer in her room, but floating over an ornamental pond and stream. Through the bright white haze, she beheld a dreamy scene. The brook bubbled softly beneath the bridge built across the stream with exquisite stonework. The flowering bushes and trees were in full blossom and petals fell in a constant shower of pink and gold. Across the bridge, down a stone path was an oriental pavilion surrounded by the flora of the garden. Two figures were there. The man, cloaked in some dark colors indistinguishable in the glare, reached gently into the pond the pavilion overlooked and picked a lotus from it. As he put it in the woman's long, black hair, she put a flute to her lips and blew a lilting melody to some background music which took Rina some time to realize was the wind moving through the canopy of the trees above. Through the roof of leaves, she could distantly see the form of some high buildings. As she turned back to the pair in the pavilion, her mind slipped into the white glare once more. Every noise from the scene she had just witnessed was quieted. Just before she reappeared in her room, the lilting flute came to melancholy conclusion. When she returned to her senses, a digivice done in green leaf patterns and a smattering pattern pink flowers had been added to the room's mess.

---

A teenager ran down the street, chasing up to a group of a few others walking slowly and leisurely along. The art show exhibited at the school hadn't been long since ending and they were among many heading home after taking a gander at what everyone in the area could do. The displays ranged from things that anyone who tried _really_ hard could do, to stuff that was simply breathtaking in either hidden artistic meaning or plain visual appeal. The annual event was surprisingly popular for what many perceived as the classic boring-as-the-weather-channel art display.

The teen caught up to the rest of his group and quickly fell into pace with them, opening up conversation with the group who had previously been conversing about what was new.

"Well, Wayne. What is it you're going to tell us? Don't tell me the rankings, I can already guess." One of the younger kids replied. He'd been the only silent one throughout the conversation on the art. The scene was ludicrous to see one like him among company who seemed to be the type to get nothing but C's in their report cards and to see every one of them, except him, discussing art.

"Heh, actually Seico…"

"I got second place." The fourteen year old concluded as the rest of the group's attention switched over to them. "As usual. And Victor got first." He continued dryly.

"Oh come on." The speaker was some huge young man in jeans and leather jacket. He seemed much larger than the slim, though athletic Seico but seemed to put a lot of respect on him. "Second place isn't bad. I'd be damn happy just to make into the friggin' show."

"Actually, Seico came in _third_ this year. Some girl knocked Victor out of first! The judges were thinking for so long before actually deciding. They said that girl's piece had that underlying thing that talks to the viewer and all that nonsense."

"It's not nonsense." Seico explained patiently as they continued walking along, talking in a way to sound as far from as if he were trying to flaunt his knowledge as possible. He knew he himself was never in the best of moods with just one person higher up than him. He could only imagine how those even lower than him felt. "That's part of what art does. It creates an image in your head or is an image that you absorb both visual enjoyment as well as a message from. Whatever it was that scored higher than _Victor_ of all people, I didn't see it. If I did, I wouldn't have forgotten." Which was true. He'd have been deceiving himself if he didn't recognize how great Victor, his brother, was. Someone capable of defeating him at anything must have been the biggest damn prodigy in the world.

"Whatever. Anyway, I didn't catch who was the artist of it but if I do, I'll tell you."

"Do that." Seico replied as he turned onto the path leading to his apartment.

"Yo, don't you want to hang with us and maybe grab some time at the arcades or something?"

"Nah." Seico returned. "I've got some stuff to do. I'll be on ICQ in case anyone's up for some online game or other though.

"Okay." Wayne replied as the group started moving again. The rest of the gang echoed 'seeya' and got a hand waved back at them as Seico disappeared into the confines of his apartment building. 

The elevator hummed softly as it took him up to the third floor where he lived. In short order, the doors opened into the familiar gray carpets and alabaster walls of the corridor. Turning right brought him quickly to his home where he unlocked the door and entered the neat apartment of his household's four people. Victor wasn't back yet. Who knew where he was. With as much fame as he had, he could be dating anyone or giving a speech or something anywhere.

No one was home yet. His father was working, Victor was somewhere and his uncle Kaine, a man quite close to a useless bum, was probably out spending what little cash he had and perhaps making that same small amount back on the few odd jobs he took. The fridge proved devoid of anything suitable. However, the shelf provided a bag of chips which he opened and conveyed to his room. Running a server, he kept his computer active constantly and it was out of sleep mode within seconds. Soon, Explorer had accessed the website of his school but as expected, it had not been updated with information on the winner of the art exhibition as yet. ICQ likewise failed to produce any messages of import that he bothered to attend and reply to. His email was junk as usual. Though he sympathized with the rest, he couldn't help but think of a lot of others' ideas as pretty petty. One email however, had an attachment and it caught his eye, piquing his interest.

"That's funny. I wasn't expecting such a big attachment right now. Wonder what it is…" Briefly, he considered leaving it alone as email programs were often targets of computer viruses but he then dismissed that idea. He had complete confidence in his skills should that really be a virus. With mind thus set, he opened the email and began downloading the attachment. 

As the D/L bar moved quickly down its slot, his screen began to glow brightly, flooding the room in a pulsing radiance. Soon, it dimmed, or rather contrasted, pulsing between a darkness that ate the light in the room to an ambient gray up to a luminosity that threatened his eyesight. As his eyes were overwhelmed by afterimages, a shadowy music began to play within his mind. An orchestra of instruments he could not identify, yet sounded completely normal in nature. As the music sped up to a soft tune, a scene flashed before his eyes.

The sacred rainforest dripped with dew as the fog that inhabited its lower layer shifted in ever changing patterns. It seemed to grow thicker, yet seemed about to clear every time one looked at a different place. Beams of what was presumably sunlight sifted down from above but as the fog shifted, so did the beams of light move like searchlights across the forest floor. The shroud of fog revealed only what was immediately before his eyes. A few creatures that were alien, yet seemed perfectly right and the form of which he could not recall as soon as they faded into the fog. In the distance, village huts rose with a few silent fires of different colors. Stone blocks and stone idles dripped with moisture and moss, depicting unidentifiable figures. Children were dancing to silent music with just as silent a tread around the largest hut whose window was of some sort of translucent material. Lamp shadows appeared within the building, depicting at least two figures. Then, the dancing children-like figures faded from the area, leaving a ghost village save for that central hut. One of the shadow figures within drew a long object and swung. The second figure crumpled after a splash of liquid told of his fate. The music returned to the shadowy beginning melody it had started at as the scene faded into nothingness, returning Seico to his room. His hand now held a digivice created of a solid, gray stone, carved with shallow markings that seemed to writhe wildly when one looked at it from the corner of the eye.

---

The food court at the mall was positively stuffed as high school students left the high school nearby after the conclusion of the art exhibition. Many of them opting to eat out rather than return home early, hanging out with friends and so on. Jason was among those people as he retrieved his food and paid his money at the mall's KFC and returned to his table where a number of his friends were gathered about. Since he had went to get food, several more had joined the table.

"Hey what's up?" He began with a standard conversation opening. 

"Not much, you?" Paul replied, sipping at his coke.

"Nuttin' much either except running about the art show there. Did you see the painting at the center of the auditorium? That one was…It was great!"

"Yeah, I saw it, the dragon one. It got first prize too. By Rina I think it was." Gerri put in, taking a bite into her sub. 

"Not a bad artist. It looked computer rendered it was so realistic."

"You could almost _touch_ it!" Lucy exclaimed, eating some of her own food.

At that point, a number of decidedly attractive girls walked past the table, probably on their way towards the other end of the food court. The faces passed quickly and to the average observer, the only real indication of attractiveness was Jason and Paul automatically follow with their heads.

"Instinctive ain't it?" Lucy giggled.

"Nah, it was a fly. A terrible coincidence, I _assure_ you." Paul joked.

"Whatever." Gerri said with an eye roll.

"That's Claria." Julia said.

"Isn't she that girl who never goes out with anyone?"

"She was going out with Rob or something."

"Isn't he the guy who got killed last year?

The group fell silent as they all had turned to watch the subject of their discussion. The girl in a jean jacket had finished her purchase and was just leaving, chatting and laughing with her friends. As if nothing was going within her heart…

---

Claria opened the door to her room and instantly plopped onto her bed, tired from a day of activity all over the place. It wasn't difficult to find the MP3 Player that accompanied her constantly and soon, music was playing into her ears by way of headphone and her computer was well into the process of booting up.

Throwing her jacket lazily onto the floor, she ripped off her socks and threw them into a corner as well, among a growing pile of clothes. She was _not_ the neatest person around, especially when everyone in her household was neat as hell, right down to his little brother, a five year old who loved nothing more than putting all his toys in utter, perfect order.

The computer was done booting up so she shut off her player and switched to her Napster jukebox instead, pumping up the surround sound blasters to a totally infernal volume. 

"Clarie, turn that _DOWN_!" The usual shout to turn it down from down the hall in the living room of the apartment where her dad was just turning on the TV to watch the news as usual.

"_Yeah_, Claria. Turn that down!" Her little sister mimicked mockingly. She ignored both voices with a smile and got her modem connected to her ISP. Soon, her mom would join her father and sister in gloriously useless complaint about the phone-line hold up. Her brother sat in his and her sister's room, ordering toys or whatever, oblivious to all.

Her machine's modem was a bit slow at 36.6 but in due course, she managed it to log into her email account. The amount of email was phenomenal as she had a lot of friends and pen pals and tons of people with reason to send her one. As soon as she clicked the first one and ordered the modem to download the attachment to it, her music ended.

For a moment, she was afraid she'd let in a virus of some sort. Then, her entire room darkened into pure blackness and she knew that no virus could do that. The sound of the television outside, her sister's whining, her mother growling at having to use her cell phone, all of it stopped and froze, plunging Claria into ultimate darkness and utter silence. For a few moments, the only noise was her heartbeat and her own accelerated breath before a quiet music built up in volume. The music was a mix of strings and flutes playing a tune of darkness and evil that put a chill into her being. The occasional woodwind instrument sounded before the quieter instruments disappeared, replaced by the screaming and wailing of souls. Soon, those souls, wisps of glowing white with dark eyes of various colors that sought to attack their counterpart within her body appeared around her, flying hither tither in the total darkness of the netherworld she had been sent to. She began getting the impression she was falling as the souls began an upward movement. Wind whipped at her from below and the screams of the souls trailed like she was moving quickly. She struck a surface at the 'bottom' of the void. The darkness lifted into a scene of devastation. The ground was blasted in many places. Naught was left other than brown grass blowing under the compulsion of an uneven wind and trees bereft of foliage and waving violently in the gale. Two forces stared each other down. She could see neither, yet sensed them both about the clash under the dark, threatening sky. Her hair blew out of control around her as the forces upon the battlefield collided. A great demon of darkness reared its ugly head, composed entirely of starry nighttime sky. As he rose, the clouds above gained a crimson appearance. The other force was a titan in bluish-purple armor. As he stood in all his glory, the clouds above him circled and rotated, forming thunderbolts that tore the ground about him asunder. The two forces collided but as the scene faded, the darkness overcame the scene. She was back in the netherworld's darkness and silence and then, she was once again in her room, listening to music and reading the next email. She looked at the sole reminder of the vision she had just received. A digivice of pure gold and silver. Carved upon it, was a black crest…

   [1]: maloncanth@hotmail.com



	6. A Plan of Action

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon ****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. I've tried my best to characterize here but I've done easier chapters I'll tell you that. Apologies for the long combat scenes eating space, couldn't help myself. =)

Blade of Destiny

Chapter VI: A Plan of Action

[maloncanth@hotmail.com][1]

Izzy found his TV's remote control sitting upon the small coffee table as usual and turned the tube on as he flopped down onto what could be the most basic and generic couch ever made. He got back up immediately however and headed to the kitchen to grab a soda while considering what to make for dinner and whether it would be possible to switch said dinner from TV dinner to something else. 

__

…I'm Raymond Hioko, KBN Financial Report…Monster sightings once again are in store for Japan and it seems this time that it could be stranger - and worse - than ever. More later, after these commercials…

Izzy wasn't really paying attention to the news or the ensuing commercials as he poked about his fridge for dinner. Finding nothing of edible value, he resigned himself to another day with the old disposable platter and microwave. Absently, he punched a few numbers in and opened his pop as well, taking a gulp before striding down the hall to start up his computers and stuff. He allowed them to boot up as he reverted from outdoor clothing to more comfortable pants and one of a number of T-shirt he often wore indoors.

"Izzy? Izzy!!" Tentomon called from the living room. "I _really_ think you should see this!"

"What is it? Okay, I'm coming!" Izzy stepped back into the living room, took one look at the television and disabled whatever part of his brain usually kept his jaw from dropping right down. Displayed on the news, was one thing that was seriously not good.

__

…destroyed today by what preliminary investigation explained as an industrial explosion. Further investigation however, has, a mere hour ago, revealed this to be untrue. The force that destroyed the building is now being described by officials as 'several shockwaves of exterior origin'. The disaster nearly claimed the lives of two youngsters who appeared to have been present at the time of the incident when most of the workers were at lunch. They were uncovered after spending at least three and a half hours beneath the rubble, they are both at Kyoto Central Hospital in serious condition. In addition to this, we just received new footage. Just briefly before the incident, a viewer caught this image… The image on screen switched here from footage of none other than Tao and Shastina being moved onto an ambulance to a photo dominated by a lens flare probably because it was taken around noon. At the center of the image was a vaguely humanoid figure, floating in mid-air, beams of colored light dispersing from his hand. Yet, the news made no mention of that light. Obviously this was another thing only digi-destined could see, just like the digimon in the real world just prior to Myotismon's invasion nine years ago. _It is unknown whether this vaguely humanoid figure is one of the monsters that have again begun appearing in Japan or if it had anything to do with the destruction of the building. So far, no further reports after the major incident in the New York area of the United States has been reported. Stay tuned…_

Izzy collapsed into his chair before once again getting up. He ran to his computer and began composing an email…

---

The green clothed figure looked both ways along the road carefully. Her coloration concealed her well in the darkness which would also only light up green on either side of her. Failing to see any telltale headlights, she proceeded to cross the road as swiftly as she was able before disappearing into the brush on the opposite side. From there, she ran roughly along the road until she got to a clearing, the place of her arrival when she and her charge had somehow been transported to another world. Here, what water could be found was polluted and the place was dominated by strange creatures which most certainly were not digimon. The one she had acquired water though, definitely seemed to be this place's Digitamemon equivalent and soon after acquiring a few bottles of water, she was pursued by several others. Not wishing to attract attention, she fled and here she was, back.

Before her, lay a still unconscious Fraramon. Her healing abilities were limited and outside of her home, in another world no less, her options were limited. She only hoped those options had been enough to keep her friend alive. Carefully, she opened the first bottle of water and allowed it to dribble into his mouth. 

"Okay, Frare. You'd better not choke…" She said to herself. She didn't notice the flashlights of the police hunting for her nearby apparently.

"There you are!" A voice shouted. The surprise snapped her head around to look. She turned and she was suddenly starting at a flashlight pointed at her, illuminating her face and shimmering pink hair. "You're under arrest for shoplifting, lady!" 

Obviously, she had no idea what this meant except now she had nowhere to retreat to. Training and instinct kicked in over conscious thought. Fortunately, the flashlight had not yet illuminated Fraramon so she had no need to protect him, just get rid of these people. Raising her hand, set of petals materialized in them. They were razor sharp and half the size of her relatively small palm but served a potent role.

"Petal Shards!" With a flick of her hand and wrist, the petals went flying towards the source of the light. 

"Ahh!!!" The officer yelled something unrepeatable in surprise and pain as Verdantmon leaped into the air.

---

"Huh? What was that?" Michael looked momentarily from where he was driving to the side of the road from the direction he had heard the sound, which seemed suspiciously – and eerily – like a human scream of pain. 

"You heard it too?" Mimi asked concerned. The two had really not been expecting to find much on their second drive through the area that night in their attempt to discover something new about the area that had somehow spawned dozens of digimon that day. 

__

So much for that conclusion… Mimi thought. 

"Ah damnit!"

__

"We're within range of the suspect, suspect is armed…" 

Hearing what was obviously a police radio not far from them at all, they momentarily thought this was a crime scene, not what they were looking for, until a ball of green energy lashed out from the woods. When the dust kicked up by the attack hitting cleared, there was cracked part of the road and a police officer groaning with pain from that attack and a few cuts here and there.

"Let's go!" Michael yelled as Betamon jumped out of the car, ready at the command of his digivice.

"Betamon, digivolve to…Seadramon!" The giant serpent reared up, from the ground it now sat on and got ready to charge into the woods. There was no need however, as the digimon in question somersaulted through the air effortlessly and landed on the road. The headlights of Michael's car revealed a face that certainly shared characteristics with Lillymon's. This new plant-looking digimon had pink hair, green tunic with bell-shaped leaf sleeves, verdant cape and pink hair.

"Whoa! She looks almost like Lillymon!" Mimi remarked.

"Ice Blast!"

Seadramon's attack went wide as his enemy sidestepped and ran a few steps before leaping. With a cry, she released razor sharp petals in mid-air and placed her landing well enough for the car to cover her as she returned to Earth amidst the sound of Seadramon's grunt of pain from the attack. Seadramon's hesitation in damaging Michael's car cost him as within a few moments, the enemy digimon was back in the air. The same attack and this time, Seadramon fell backwards, close to being knocked out.

"Man, she's not bad! Seadramon!" Michael he cried, running towards his digimon – his head anyway – to make sure of his condition.

"Mimi?"

"Right!" Mimi said, pulling out her digivice.

"Palmon, digivolve to…Togemon!"

The boxing cactus came out swinging, forcing the smaller planet into a retreating fit of dodging the punches. Togemon's red gloves looked impressive but she wasn't quite able to connect to the agile pink-haired digimon she fought.

"That's it, Togemon! Keep it up!" As if enhanced by Mimi's sincere support, the next punch clipped the smaller digimon, sending her flying without the usual balance when she jumped. 

"Now you've tasted the glove, how about some needle spray?!?" Togemon yelled as she let loose a flurry of cactus needles at her foe. Despite landing hard though, she jumped again, leaving the needles sticking out of the dirt or lying about on the road to catch the next unlucky tired vehicle. 

"Verdant Force!" 

A ball of green energy formed at the once more airborne digimon's fingertips and launched at Togemon, who received it full in the face with a resounding "Urrgh!"

"Togemon!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright…" The cactus managed feebly. 

"Look's like we need one more level!" Mimi declared. 

"Togemon, digivolve to…Lillymon!"

The new, plant fairy was about the same size as her enemy now. Except this was one case of an ultimate against a champion. 

"Verdant Force!" Lillymon dodged the green sphere this time and returned fire.

"Flower Cannon!"

"Ooph!" The other digimon was struck directly and got thrown backwards, crashing back into the woods.

"We got it!" Michael said, running back. Seadramon still had not de-digivolved yet. So the damage must not have been threatening. The two chased after the digimon, with their own digimon following behind. They were halted by sudden surprise as a red wave of energy cut through the foliage and forced Lillymon to evade.

"What the-" The two humans said in unison.

"If you know what's good for you, do _not_ touch Verdantmon." Came a hoarse but harsh voice from the woods.

"Another one!" Michael exclaimed in surprise.

"There he is!" Mimi said, spotting the humanoid digimon that was nearly perfectly concealed from detection in the shadows. At the moment, only a slight orange glow over his hand betrayed his position to the first glance.

"Flower Cannon!"

With an audible grunt of effort, Fraramon dodged the attack and let off another Heat Katana. The searing attack nearly clipped Lillymon's wing this time but did not cause serious harm. Another green blast from Lillymon came out in retaliation.

"Stop it!" Verdantmon yelled, surprising everyone by getting up from an ultimate level attack. She saw Fraramon, way too exhausted, hurt and out of energy to do any more serious fighting on his own level and made a split second decision that might have earned her the crest of rashness. She leapt in front of the attack. The blast engulfed her. There was no scream as her face looked simply too shocked from the pain for it. She crumpled to the ground, caught by Fraramon, who attempted to revive her, to no avail. 

Mimi looked at Michael, who looked back, uncertain and Mimi. The two digi-destined's digimon seemed to reflect their partners' confusion as well.

"We'd better call the others about this…" Mimi said at last.

"No kidding!" Michael replied, running back to the car for the cell phone. This one would be worth the long distance bill…

---

Tai slammed a hand onto the table after a length of silence amidst the fine mix of angry, shocked and horrified faces of the digi-destined. The pause after the slam, a rare one for an often much cooler-headed Tai of today, was broken only by the hum of hospital equipment. The rest, especially the figure lying unresponsive on the bed.

"Who could have done this?!?" Matt demanded of the air. 

"Well, whoever it was knocked Goshukumon right out of there." Sora remarked, still holding a rather undecided expression on her face. "Where are Harriermon and Tigramon anyway?" She added.

"They're in the same room as Tao." Kari said, sitting beside Shastina. "I think Joe said they're both going to be okay. They'll just be hurting for a while from all those bruises. 

__

Hurting…

__

She's getting better at hiding it, for better or for worse. Sora thought to herself as she looked at the high school student's almost forced neutrally worried expression. Yet, she couldn't hide it complete. Her strength was her greatest weakness. It was not difficult to tell how much seeing someone else hurt had hurt Kari in turn. That omnipresent light within the heart that gave her crest meaning. It meant in a way, she had to absorb all that darkness. Tai was perhaps not the type to feel that way, yet she could see that in there with that reawakened anger was something that could see his sister was disturbed. A glance told her Yolei and TK could see it too. Davis… Well he was still being Davis.

"I can't believe someone could have done this! Heck, we've never actually suffered any injuries before and now this!"

__

Davis is _feeling it… I guess he isn't as simple as the Davis so long ago…_

"I am going to find whoever did this and kick-"

"Uh…do you even _know_ who beat them up so badly?"

Davis just glared at Cody. Normally, a humorous incident or at least a humorous confused expression would have been in order. But no one was in the mood for jokes now. Ken just looked on, loathing another confrontation from back from five years ago.

"Cody's right." The whole group turned as Izzy came in, newly arrived with research from Tao and Shastina's digivices and possibly, a verbal account out of the damaged Harriermon and Tigramon. "At the present moment, we don't stand much of a chance if it came to head to head fight. I've compiled all the information we have on what our new enemies can do in terms of fighting ability. The conclusion; we are definitely outmatched right now."

"Gee, we've taken on the Dark Masters, Apocalymon, Diaboramon…the whole works and now we're _outmatched_??" Tai exclaimed.

"That _is_ hard to believe, Izzy. I mean, after all we've been through…" Matt said in a more controlled tone.

"Well, look. At the moment, we've got three Mega digimon between us. Imperialdramon, Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon. Now, let's take a look at what we're up against." He brought up the first image. "Ohmumon." He said unnecessarily, as if any of them might not recognize the gargantuan pillbug of a digimon and its array of red eyes. The image switched again, this time to a huge dragon. "Darigamon." Izzy continued.

"And there was that smaller one Mimi said was hanging around it too." TK said, remember.

"And then there's the one who did this…" Yolei said, still disturbed. Izzy nodded as they spoke.

"Ohmumon, Darigamon, Celesmon and Wobbumon. They're the _four_ Megas we've seen so far and in case anyone can't count, they outnumber us."

"But the Dark Masters were four Mega digimon as well." Sora said. "We certainly managed to defeat them."

"Yeah, but that fight was a lot easier for a number of reasons." Izzy replied. "Remember, the Dark Masters came at us independently. They worked alone and we could take them out one by one. Not to mention we had digimon with advantages against two of them and the other two were just out-numbered like hell. These ones might be too but are you willing to bet two worlds on that? And then, we also have reason to believe the Dark Masters weren't as strong as this new set."

"What?" TK exclaimed, quite appalled.

"Let's take a look at say Puppetmon for example. When we fought him, he lost a hammer to Garudamon's claw even though she was only an ultimate. Same thing with Piedmon, he was forced to block a Wing Blade, again from Garudamon with his own attack. Even Blackwargreymon took a beating when he fought Paildramon, Shakkouamon and Sylphimon all at once. That suggests even at the Mega level, ultimate attacks can still hurt if you're not careful. But look at Wobbumon! He just took all the hits Goshukumon cared to throw at him and didn't even feel it! He cleaned Goshukumon out of there in a single hit as well. And let's not forget Ohmumon. Even Imperialdramon's Positron Laser attack couldn't get through its shell. These guys are a lot tougher than anything we've faced before, we need a plan, not a blunder right now."

"I guess Izzy's right." Matt said, slumping down into one of the remaining chairs. "And let's not forget the whole slew of ultimates Mimi and Michael ran into in America. I think we'd better think up a course of action. Better to take some time than to lose everyone."

"But how much time do we have to take?" Tai argued. "We've got one giant roach possibly still under Kyoto. We've also got two Megas possibly in America and the last one is known to be able to appear in Japan. If we take too long, it may well be over and based on our past experiences, I think we're looking at another threat to both worlds."

"A reasonable conjecture." Izzy replied. "In other words, yes, we need a plan but we need one quick."

"Well, we could try picking them off one by one." Yolei suggested.

"That would be great but where are we going to find them? They could be anywhere in either world!" Cody pointed out. 

"Well, it seems to me we really don't have a choice but to revisit the digital world. Maybe we can find out what happened in there."

"I guess that's about the only thing we can do now." Sora said finally after hearing Izzy's idea. "What about Tao and Shastina?"

"Well, the doctors said they're both through the worst of it. I got the impression they won't be walking around anytime soon though." Matt said. "They were both hit pretty hard. Tao's got two broken bones but Shastina got hit real hard in the head or something. Not to mention both of them supposedly have a long cut that they don't know the origin of except it somehow healed while they were here."

"Funny." Izzy said, tilting his head in consideration. "Look at this." He continued, turning the monitor of his laptop once again to his audience. "The profile on Wobbumon here shows him without any visible weapon either because he's hiding it or because he doesn't have one. But here..." The screen changed to the auto-record footage on Tao's digivice. "…he has a sword." Izzy finished."

"Whoa! That's some sword." Davis remarked, noting the crystal clear object. There were red designs on it but the picture was neither large enough or of sufficiently fine quality to make out what it was. "I wonder what is it."

"Whatever it is, I'm betting he hit Tao and Shastina with it." TK said.

"I looked through everything we have on the digital world but that object doesn't come up in any of them but whatever he's carrying, it isn't his."

"So…" Sora began. "We schedule a time I guess, to revisit the old digi-world…"

"And we keep in mind the few clear objectives we have right now. Finding out what that sword is, possibly taking it away from Wobbumon and above all, find out what is sending digimon into the real world and evaluate the threat from there."

"Sounds like we have a winner." Matt said, agreeing. "This weekend then?"

"Sunday." Izzy affirmed. "I think we're all available and it should be Saturday night for Mimi and Michael so that would work out too. We enter the digital world, try to track down someone we know – say Gennai or something – and then we work from there."

"Good plan." Davis commented. "Now can we eat?"

"Yeah." TK agreed. "I'm starving."

"Well, we'll see you guys Saturday then." Tai said. "The lot of us older kids gotta head back and burn some books for a few tests."

"Heh, older _kids_ eh?" Matt poked. Tai responded with a shrug and a grin.

"Whatever."

With a general round of 'cyas' and so forth, the group headed to the elevator and broke up thereafter. Imperialdramon facilitated transportation for those heading back for Tokyo. Upon arrival, the group disintegrated some more. It wound down to V-mon and Davis walking with Ken and Wormmon as the two headed towards the other end of town.

"Hey Davis, you wanna come over for dinner?"

"Well uh…sure!" Davis said. "Your mom's a good cook, unlike mine."

"Heh."

__

Beepbeep-beepbeep-beepbeep-beepbeep…

"Huh?" Davis said, momentarily shocked out of the silence of the river's flow by the sound.

"Cell phone." Ken muttered, pulling his out and answering it. "Hello?"

"Ken?" Michael asked rather desperately. "I called Davis and I called your house and you weren't there."

"Michael?"

"Yeah uh, listen." The American boy replied, looking back at the cause of the call. The green, plant-looking digimon was still out cold. The black cloaked one with the glowing red eyes that gave him a classic 'monster-in-the-shadows' look continued to stare balefully back at him. Quite creepy. Whenever he looked, the digimon was always looking back. "We've got two uh…digimon here and two of us just gotten real confused. I'm wondering can you get Imperialdramon here?"  


"Uh, yeah if you need him…"

"Mimi and I were driving along the place where we saw all those digimon before."

"And?"

"First run through, nothing. Second time through, we ran into two. A champion and an ultimate it looks like-" A blast of light interrupted him, compelling him to drop his phone. This wasn't much of a problem though because by then, the phone was in a great deal more pieces than usually advisable anyway. The two digi-destined looked up to see what appeared to be an angel digimon encased in an aura of golden light. Her face was of an appalling beauty with white hair that ran not ragged with age, but evenly as if white were their natural color. Her wings were black as night. Her face was a sleepy smile and by now, it was quite obvious where that blast of light had come from.

"Who're you?" Michael demanded in return for a brief laugh from the figure.

"I, am Celesmon. And you, are in some serious trouble."

"Well, I hope you're prepared for some role reversal." Michael said, inwardly hoping Davis and Ken were smart enough to get here after the line got cut. "Betamon."

"At your service, friend." The digimon said at once.

"You too, Palmon!"

"You got it!"

"Betamon, digivolve to…Seadramon!"

"Palmon, digivolve to…Togemon!"

"Seadramon, digivolve to…Megaseadramon!"

"Togemon, digivolve to…Lillymon!"

"Well guys, I hope you aren't tired from a double digivolving because now we need to fight!"

"Oh yeah!" Megaseadramon said in enthusiasm. "Mega Ice Blaster!"

"Flower Cannon!"

For a moment, the two attacks looked like they were actually going to hit something. Then, Celesmon exploded into action. Flipping her wings once, she was suddenly moving fast enough to avoid both attacks. 

"Thunder Javelin!"

In an instant, Celesmon's black wings were folded forward, protecting her face as the electric energy struck the barrier and dissipated. Unfurling them once again, her left hand wound back. "Angel Crusher!" A much larger version of the ball of light that had obliterated the cellular phone developed and came flying towards Lillymon. The ball was blazing fast and scored a partial hit on the flower digimon, eliciting a cry of pain and surprise. The retaliatory Flower Cannon was dodged easily once more.

Celesmon's sleepy smile grew. "I don't think you're going to be able to beat me like that. Angel Crusher!" This time, it went after Megaseadramon who was far too slow to avoid any of it. With a roar, the sea serpent was knocked backwards into a roll across the ground, obliterating some trees on either side of the highway. "No, I definitely don't think you can beat me if you keep going like this. Don't you two even have a Mega form yet?" She taunted sweetly. "No? What a friggin' pity. I'm not supposed to be picking fights while here but I don't suppose it'll matter if you're both utterly annihilated in the first inning." The corrupted angel wound up again. "Angelic-"

"Mega Crusher!" The giant white ball of energy burst in from the side, horizontally seeing as any angel leading it to the ground would have been quite disastrous for the city. Celesmon reacted instantly, converting her attack into a defense. The energy crashed into the angel, blowing past her barely stable defense and nearly knocking her out of the sky and definitely producing her own cry of surprise and pain.

"I THINK WE'LL BE GOING INTO OVERTIME!" Davis shouted from the ancient dragon's back.

"About time!" Mimi replied, waving.

"This isn't over yet!" Celesmon declared, flapping a few times to get back to the altitude she had lost. "Angel Crusher!"

"Ugh!" Imperialdramon shuddered under the force of the blow but wasn't put out of action just yet. "Positron Laser!"

The beam cut into thin air as Celesmon dodged again.

"Flower Cannon!"

Celesmon's flying was pretty impressive they had to admit. It was easily as fast, if not faster than Lillymon and she certainly didn't look like she was slowing down after taking a Mega Crusher from Imperialdramon.

"There's your opening, Imperialdramon!"

"HIT IT!" Ken yelled.

"Imperialdramon Mode Two…" The massive dragon crashed to the highway below which, thankfully, was deserted. The pavement cracked and Michael's car positively jumped on its tires from the massive impact. In an incredible aura of light, Imperialdramon transformed into his two legged, triple powered form. "Imperialdramon, Fighter Mode!"

"Wha…?" Celesmon could only wonder. "I didn't know you could do that…ah well…" Celesmon flapped a few times to gain some combat altitude against her new foe. "ANGEL CRUSHER!" This time, the glowing ball was one heck of a lot larger and faster. The attack came down on Imperialdramon like a meteor, hitting home upon the mega digimon's quickly crossed arms.

"Positron Laser!"

"Thunder Javelin!"

"Flower Cannon!"

Celesmon was a comet in the air, zipping away from the attacks and launcher her own in return, swatting Lillymon out of action. Mimi only just managed to catch the falling Palmon as she fell to the Earth below.

"Mega Ice Blaster!"

"Agh!" The attack hit its target, nailing Celesmon with ice. 

"Got her!"

Celesmon quickly brought herself under control and paused for a moment in the air as if considering. "Hehe, I'll concede this time. Wouldn't let it get to your head though." She said abruptly. Before any of her opponents could respond to this sudden conclusion of the battle, a swirling portal of some sort appeared behind Celesmon and engulfed her, facilitating her escape, leaving the digi-destined digimon on the road, breathing hard.

---

The hour was late indeed but Casey failed to notice the digital clock displaying 3:49. Even his sister was home, asleep in the next room but his computer has stayed on. He knew there might be a connection between this new object of his and the computer. After all, it had appeared in his hand immediately after his computer had done something strange…to say the least.

Indeed, this thin was a puzzle. The swirls of blue shifted each time he wasn't looking directly at it. It was incredible. Anyone else would have called it an alien object. Casey however, was only intent on solving the puzzle. Finding the solution to a problem or task was his specialty. It helped him forget the real world once in a while. It was something

"Hmm…" He muttered turning the thing over in his hand, continuing his contemplation. "Well, there aren't any moving parts that I can see. I wonder if it does something by itself or if I have to hold it near something." He looked then, at his computer. The supposed source of the object did not respond outside its continuation of its screensaver. "Well, seems reasonable enough." Obligingly, he held the device at the screen, whose screensaver seemed only to beckon him further. 

A sudden revelation hit him. The device was now covered in condensation and it was warming than it usually was. He thought he was going to cry out but some exterior force silenced him. He thought for a moment he heard that same music and bubbling voice from the time he'd gotten this thing. The sound of the ocean could be heard again. The next moment, Casey was no longer standing in his room.

---

Casey opened his eyes and found a pair of larger ones staring right back at them. His mid-length blond hair practically straightened to needles right there. His green eyes widened at the sight of the clearly living thing sitting on his red T-shirt. 

"Whoa!"

"Hi there! You're awake! Are you Casey?"

"Uh…yeah!"

"Nice to meet ya! My name's Yisamon! I'm you're partner!"

"Uh…cool…" Casey had no idea which of the statements to answer since this clearly sentient guy here seemed to favor saying them in sets of three. He elected to try and send a question of his own. "What are you?"

"Why I'm a digimon of course! Haven't you seen a digimon before? Didn't you see one before becoming a digi-destined?"

Casey got an arm and scratched his head. "Nope." He concluded, then added. "Digi-destined?"

"Well, you're a digi-destined of course! Only digi-destined have access to the digital world! That's why you're here!"

"Okay so you're a digimon and I'm a digi-destined. So what is this, the digi-world?"  
  
"Why yes! It makes perfect sense doesn't it? I'm a digimon, a digital monster and this is the digiworld, the digital world and you're the…well, I don't think digital destined is the right term but it's something to that effect." By now, Casey had gotten a good look at the animal – if you could call it that – sitting on his chest. It was a sort of lizard with four claws per limb and webbing like a duck's between each digit. The sail on its back seemed to indicate an mainly aquatic nature as well. Save for its proportionally large head and larger eyes, it was a normal lizard. That is, if blue was a normal color for a lizard.

"Okay…" Casey ran the new information through his head a few times and resolved to ask more later. Right now, he knew he was in some sort of other world. Judging by the word 'digital' attached to everything, this was inside his computer or the internet or something and these digimon…were they viruses or programs? "I'll ask more later when I think I need it." He concluded. "Meanwhile could you please get off me so I can get up?"

His new 'partner' smiled brightly and leapt off with surprising agility for a lizard. It/he didn't say anything in reply. Casey wondered if it was because he couldn't think of three separate sentences or fragments to say. His thoughts were interrupted by a distant buzzing that seemed to be coming closer.

"Hey, you hear that?"

"I sure do and I ain't liking it." Yisamon said. "That's Yanmamon's wings beating. He's one insect digimon with a bad temper!"

Casey wasn't into insects, but the last time buzzing got that loud was with a mosquito practically in his ear. If this thing was so loud at a range he couldn't even see…

__

Oh man, I think this thing's going to be large…

"Thunder Ray!"

"Aaaaaah!" Casey hit the turf as a blast of electric energy discharged at his feet, charring the earth and filling the air with a burning smell. 

"Casey! Are you alright?" Yisamon turned towards the air to say the third thing in his set. It turned out, as Casey saw now, not to be mere words this time either. "Water Blast!" To Casey's amazement, a stream of water emitted from Yisamon's gaping reptilian mouth and struck the dragonfly-like Yanmamon dead on knocking the thing astray and painfully into a sapling. It replied to the insult with the cackle-sounding noise of his mandibles clattering.

"Thunder Ray!"

"YeaaAAHH!" Yisamon yelped in pain as he was electrocuted thoroughly by the assault, keeling over in a heap almost right away.

"Yisamon!" Casey ran over, for some reason he could not fathom, feeling a connection to his new friend. "Are you alright?" 

"I've felt better. Dangit, he's too strong." He turned to Casey as if beseeching something that he could provide. "I need more power!"

"Well, all I got here is this darn thing that brought me here and it's-"

"That's a digivice!" Yisamon interrupted excitedly. "I knew you'd have one!" Falling silent, he jumped in front of the device that Casey held in his hands, wet from condensation on its ice cold surface, its swirling oil patterns of blue shimmering underneath a layer of real water droplets.

"Digivice? What's this thing got to-"

"Yisamon, digivolve to…" Yisamon glowed with a powerful blue aura as energy gathered around him. Briefly, the image of a dragon, wings of vapor spreading glorious appeared before Casey's eyes. The eleven year old could only stare at the metamorphosis happening to his friend, another miracle in a strange day indeed and one that amazed him more than all the others before. Now, the former Yisamon reappeared, clearly changed to the image Casey had seen flashed before him. He resolved to ask about this first opportunity he had. "…Mistdramon!" Yisamon had become Mistdramon, a dragon hovering inches from the ground that seemed entirely composed of the thick mist of its namesake. The dragon's head reared back and let loose a muted but still regal roar. The wings and claws of mist flexed eagerly for battle.

"Thunder Ray!"

"Fog Bank!"

The area was suddenly covered in fog so thick that Casey could barely see his hand held out before him. The humid atmosphere was not oppressive although it did carry a certain chill to it, like his digivice. Anyhow, Yanmamon certainly couldn't see well enough to aim as random blasts of thunder struck wide, all around them.

"Mist Claw!" A fog congealed into a thick claw that came down heavily atop Yanmamon which immediately smashed into the ground from the quite substantial attack. Caught unprepared, the dragonfly took heavy damage and shattered into bits of data.

"Yeah! You got it!" Casey yelled excitedly. Mistdramon reverted back to Yisamon once again and smiled with Casey.

   [1]: maloncanth@hotmail.com



	7. Fearless

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon ****

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao. If any of you wonder, I developed Faelie off that rather daring girl on the coaster on the second Daemon Corps episode. Maybe a bit humor heavy (or worse yet, not funny at all) but I couldn't resist. =) This chapt is a bit short, just to keep you all sated while I think of ideas. =)

Blade of Destiny

Chapter VII: Fearless

[maloncanth@hotmail.com][1]

With all the patience and delicacy in the world, Rina touched another dab of paint on the branches that had materialized on her paper in the past several hours. The petals, fresh and pink, appeared on the paper upon the branches, each one placed precisely, each one textured as far as the water color could manage. The bubbling brook, the path and the bridge were already in place. A pavilion would soon rise up in the background with two figures in it. As she rendered the scene stuck in her mind since her computer had acted on its own to give her the strange artifact now sitting on her cluttered desk, she wondered what exactly it was. Somehow, she didn't think it was dangerous to her, even if it was shocking to have something appear in your hand after having a vision in front of your computer.

Its presence had burned the image to which it was associated, the dreamy scene with the falling shower of pink and gold petals and the pavilion with the man and the woman beneath it. The bubbling stream, the music, the bridge of white stone and the buildings – a palace, she had decided – that hung faintly in the background, overwhelmed by the bright light. 

Bright light… The device she had placed on her desk was glowing with it, coming out of the runic symbol on the golden surface that was usually pitch black. She put down her brush and reached over and picked it up, spending some time looking at it and the increasing radiance it was emitting. The design seemed to change colors every day but it never glowed, certainly not nearly this brightly. It had her undivided attention now as her room shone brighter than ever. A breath of unknown draft built up and turned into a breeze within her room, picking up in force.

"What the hell?" She demanded as wind began to cause her T-shirt and jeans to start blowing around dramatically. Her computer was glowing very brightly as well. Within moments, she felt herself being sucked in by some unseen force. Shortly thereafter, she left the realm of consciousness. 

---

"Faelie, I don't think this is such a good idea…"

"Oh don't worry about it." The girl replied, striding forward through the woodland eagerly. The night was a dark one and the moon appeared only as a sliver between thick clouds over this place way out beyond the outskirts of London, England. 

"I shan't care to go in I don't think. Who knows what could be in here?" Another friend piped in.

"Well, if you're too afraid, you can stay out here, Sally." 

Sally looked about at the rather creepy woods, the total absence of substantial light and their proximity to a rather infamous mansion and elected to stick with her friends.

"Why didn't we at least bring a flashlight?" The third, a boy asked.

"I did."

"Why isn't it on?"

"I'd rather make sure I don't run out of batteries right when I need to take a picture or something."

"Oh…" The boy replied a trifle uncomfortable and looking cautiously at the woods around him. 

As the group walked on, the world aroud them was silent save for crickets, blowing wind and their own feet crunching on leaf and forest debris matter.

__

Hooh!

Faelie didn't flinch and kept on walking. Her companions however, were not nearly so sanguine. Phillip jumped quite high into the air. As he landed, he nearly jumped again as Sally caught him in a deathgrip. As for Nara…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"

"Shut up, Nara. It's called a bloody owl." Phillip remonstrated though he too was visibly shaken and looking around quite rapidly in all directions. "Uh, can you let go of me too, Sally? Not that I mind terribly or anything…"

Both Sally and Nara complied to a giggle from Faelie. "Now _that_, was classic." 

They continued their trek, trudging along in the darkness until the form of an ancient, rickety mansion rose up before them. The manor was said to be one of a haunted nature. Witnesses had reported sightings of anywhere from seeing movement from the corner of the eye to outright seeing the classic 'floating sheet' ghost. 

Faelie either never believed in such things. Or she did and wasn't one bit afraid of them. Then again, this was a girl who must have visited all the most insane rollercoasters in the world and handled the rather large spider in the biology room daily. In fact, none of her friends knew her to be really afraid of anything. Her nerves were unmatchable.

The door was certainly creepy enough to at least come close though. If not for terror, then the demonic head with a nose ring that passed for a knocking handle certainly had some freak factor about it. The longer any of them looked, the more it seemed it was leering specifically at them. Faelie dismissed that of course. The gargoyles that overhung the doorstep had their try at Faelie's mind as well but they, likewise failed to do more than their compatriots placed throughout the mansion grounds.

Unhesitantly, Faelie reached out for the door with the intention of either knocking or pushing at it. At that moment however, a chilled gust of wind blew the thing open of its own accord. 

"Ooookay…that was creepy." Phil said.

"Oh yeah!" The two other girls agreed.

"Well, wind blows open doors all the time." Faelie replied reasonably, pushing them open. He glanced at the doorway as she felt the weight of the door. She was about to make a comment about the door being a bit thick and heavy for that particular gust of wind but decided that would probably be a bad idea for what was left of everyone else's peace of mind. 

As they entered the first room, Faelie switched on a flashlight and revealed a reception chamber of some sort. Another gust of wind suddenly blew through the door. Fortunately, the door didn't close on its own like they half expected. The interior of the mansion was dusty and hadn't been cleaned for an eternity. The smell of old wood permeated the place. The only visible decorations in the place were cobwebs and one in a while, a bug or two.

"Well, no one's lived here for a while." Sally commented.

"Nope." Faelie concluded, looking around, camera ready in case the reputed phantom of the manor should appear. 

"Euww…" Was Nara's only comment as she spied the various insectoid inhabitants of the area.

"They're only bugs." Phil dismissed. I'm more afraid of finding what I'm looking for. In response, Nara immediately looked about in alarm.

"Ugh, Phil, you set her off again." Faelie complained.

"Hey, it's not a crime to be afraid!" Nara shot back. 

"Nope." Phil said, hoping that would end that line of conversation. It did.

"Well, now what?" Saly asked.

"We look around I guess. Okay, Phil and I will take the first floor, Sally and-"

"Um, one moment." Nara spoke up. "Whenever you watch a horror film, doesn't half the group usually like, die or something when they split up?"

Faelie considered a moment. "Sounds reasonable, so is it up, down or stick to the same floor?" The thought to stay in floor one was unanimous.

"Alright, let's go then." She said, turning her light down the west hall. As they were about to get underway, a brief flash of light that shone out from the other hallway. 

"Uh…"

"Other hallway!" Faelie yelled running and leaving her companions only her bobbing flashlight signature to follow.

"What is it?"

"Saw something." Phil said, following quickly.

"Hey! Wait up!"

The hallway was in a darkness that seemed to smother the flashlight. None of them could tell what was in the halls other than more dust and more cobwebs. Faelie continued down the twisting passage and soon, came to a bend. He opened a door and ran smack into a figure draped in white.

"WHAT THE!" Yelled Faelie despite her repute of utter courage. Given the circumstances though, one might have forgiven her for the slip. The flashlight dropped and the lighting rolled as it swept around back to her companions.

"Huh?" Said the white thing in a surprised tone. It was a classic ghost, like something round draped in a ripped white sheet. It had a gaping mouth with eight sharp teeth, large black spheres each with a white dot where eyes usually were and two stubs in the white cloth that suggested the usual phantom's primordial limbs.

"Oh my…" Phillip started before trailing off with mouth hanging open. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Nara and Sally shrieked.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" The thing echoed. At that point, all parties excepting Faelie ran for it, down the way they had come. Faelie was left in the near darkness and quickly gave chase.

"Dammit!" She'd forgotten to bring out her camera. Whatever this thing was… The chase down the hall was quick as the first bobbing flashlight signature led the pursuer on. It wasn't long before Faelie was out in the vast back yard inside the fence. Dimly, he spotted a small house or cottage with lights glowing inside. "A ghost lair??" She wondered. Her thoughts were interrupted as a beam of light shot from the upstairs window nearest her. Quickly, the light shimmered in all the colors of the rainbow before congealing into a strange device in her hands. She ignored the stopwatch-like, silver colored thing for now, though this was one night full of surprises, she still had the wits to think clearer. She ran in, barged through the door with the ghost clearly in sight before her and, lacking anything else to do, tackled it to the carpet. 

"Dark Claw!" A black hand came form the white thing and knocked Faelie back against a wall. There was a loud crash as part of a stereo set tipped over in response and fell for its efforts. Muttering a couple curses, Faelie got back up, tackeld the thing again, completely oblivious to the fact it was a ghost now and gave it a good right to the jaw. The two, locked in combat were only stopped as footsteps rushed down the stairs. A man in pyjamas reached the bottom.

"Bakemon? Bake-Oh man this ain't good…"

   [1]: maloncanth@hotmail.com



	8. The Digital World Once Again

Legal Poo: I don't own digimon. Hell, I wish I did 'cuz I'd get rich but I don't. I'm writing this fic without their permission and neither wind nor rain nor bloodsucking lawyer will get in my way. On the other hand, the new stuff I write into this fic is mine and it'll always be. You can write about it if you ask me first though. I also don't own Shastina or Tao.  
  
I'll apologize for the delay (the whole darn year of it). This one's something of a fight scene but hey, it's been a year, gimme a break and I'll get back into story development =P.  
  
Blade of Destiny  
  
1 Chapter VIII: The Digital World Once Again  
  
maloncanth@hotmail.com  
  
  
  
Rina opened her eyes suddenly and awoke with a start. She sat up automatically and felt grass beneath her hands. The next thing she noticed was her clothing. Her clothing had changed. She was now in a pair of dark blue jeans – which was normal save this pair had an embroidered flower at the ankles – and a white T-shirt on top of it which seemed normal enough but she didn't remember owning this particular white shirt. Most of her white ones had long since become artwork.  
  
She was in a land that seemed like it was water-colored. The grass beneath her grew on a hill which was one of several in the area. Beside her, lay the object that had come from her computer – the stopwatch-like thing was face-up on the green turf, its screen cleared of everything though it was still on. The device's leaf and pink flower patterns seemed to be back to the same arrangement they had been the first day she got it.  
  
"Where am I?" She asked no one in particular as she stood up and looked about in wonder. The background, the grass, the sky – everything – seemed to be painted. Granted, it was excellent painting but her practiced eye found out the flaws. She felt like she was in a painting. Yet, the grass felt real and the trees in the distance blew with the wind. Paintings didn't do that no matter how real you made them unless you rendered it in some silicon graphics machine. Paintings didn't swallow people into a new world either.  
  
"Well?" She said before she reconsidered her statement to the open air. Did she expect an answer?  
  
"You're in the digital world!" The voice caused Rina to jump as it came quite suddenly from behind and indicated she hadn't been expecting one after all.  
  
"What the!" Rina turned around and caught sight of a flower – a strange one – nestled right up against the back of her new jeans.  
  
"Hello, Rina! I'm Aynaramon!"  
  
"You're what?"  
  
"Ayanaramon!" The cheerful flower creature repeated to her. "I'm your partner digimon!!"  
  
"Digimon?! What are you talking about?!" Rina's mind spun rapidly as she continued her conversation with this walking, moving flower. Granted, she'd painted or drawn some darn lifelike flowers before but somehow, a pair of eyes like some cartoon character from somewhere. The creature stood about knee height upon its roots which seemed attached to the ground but still apparently allowed it to shuffle about at a fair pace. Essentially, it was a miniature sunflower, a thick bulging stalk topped by an orange face ringed by yellow petals. A pair of leaf-like appendages finished the picture along with a tuft of red hair behind the neck.  
  
"You're new here aren't you?" The flower said, her head tilted.  
  
"Unless I've been sucked into my computer before some time ago and didn't remember it, yes!"  
  
"You've a long way to go, Rina." The flower sighed expressively and shook her head as if a flower swaying in the wind.  
  
"Maybe because you keep adding new things I don't know! Now how do you know my name?!"  
  
"I just do."  
  
"Well that explains a who hell of a lot." Rina answered sarcastically.  
  
"Well, I'm your partner digimon, you see…" Ayanaramon attempted to back up slightly and got a pause from her mouth instead. I've been waiting about for you, a good few days now, since I was born.  
  
"So, you're like sorta attached to me now or something?"  
  
"Well yeah, I guess so. You don't like, mind do you?" She asked her human partner worriedly.  
  
"No, of course not. It's just a bit strange you know, being bounced to another world and meeting a talking flower who's my partner and all. Not exactly my everyday life."  
  
"I see, that's what all the others say about humans. They're always surprised the first time here. Come on, I'll show you around!" Ayanaramon led Rina on and the two entered the depths of the digital world.  
  
---  
  
JOPHIO!!  
  
"WHOA!"  
  
With a start, Jophio popped awake from unconsciousness at the voice yelled into his mind and immediately looked around for the source of disturbance. This endeavor led his eyes to rest upon a landscape with a distinctive watercolor look, though everything remained tangible to his hands and under his sandled feet. Then, it led him to a small stubby looking thing on the ground beside him. It appeared to be some sort of doll. Then again, dolls didn't usually hve telepathic abilities.  
  
Jophio, you have arrived. Welcome to the digital world.  
  
"Digital…world…"  
  
Yes, this is the digital world.  
  
Jophio was understandably a bit at a loss for words. Surprise at this, which he now assumed was an alternate reality of some variation, invaded him and rendered him immobile.  
  
"Wh-Who are you?"  
  
1.1 I am Dorumon. Henceforth, I will be your friend.  
  
"My…friend?"  
  
Yes, your friend. I will always be around for you.  
  
"That's…great!" A smile broke on the small boy's face…  
  
---  
  
"So, this is the digital world. I'm seeing it with my own eyes and I still can't believe it exists. To think this is in our own computer networks, a world most of us can't see."  
  
"Yeah well, there's a first time for everything." Khermon said, flying beside Seico's head.  
  
Seico too, had been drawn into the digital world, like his unknown colleagues had also been. Upon reaching the watercolor domain, he had, like the others, met his own digimon. Khermon.  
  
The bird digimon looked like a gigantic sparrow. The coloring pattern was roughly the same, perhaps grayer and while on the ground, Khermon hopped about like them. However, he was much larger, with a wingspan of some three feet. Its feathers seemed to go with Seico's shirt and pants – both also gray and is black talons went with its human companion's running shoes.  
  
"At last, there's something that I've got Victor beat at. I'll bet he doesn't have a digimon or a digivice." He held up the rock gray device thoughtfully. It looked like a stopwatch made of stone, though it was not heavy and carved runes. The runes looked to be picture writing of some sort, but not any kind he could readily recognize. And when he looked at them from the corner of his eyes, he was positive that they writhed like dying worms, changing positions only to snap back into place when he viewed them directly.  
  
"Well yeah, I'll bet even if he did have a digimon it couldn't beat me. Hehe." Khermon puffed up his chest a tad even as he flew alongside Seico's head and as a result of the action, began sinking slowly to earth until he quit being silly.  
  
Seico's eyes narrowed at the reminder. What if…What if Victor really did have a digimon and could access the digital world and had a digivice just like his without him knowing? He had never defeated his brother. Never. Could the jinx possibly end?  
  
"Believe me, if my brother did have a digimon, he'd defeat you. My brother…does not lose to me…"  
  
"Hrm…"  
  
"Hmm…"  
  
"Mmm…"  
  
1.2 Grrrr…  
  
"Hmm, thought it was a hmming contest, what was-oh…"  
  
"What is it Kher-oh…"  
  
"That." Khermon concluded in a knowing tone.  
  
"That is not good I'm betting."  
  
"Hell no, it's not."  
  
Human and digimon stared ahead at a massive shape that was currently growling at them. It had remained hidden thanks to one excellent cloaking ability of some sort. It looked for all the world, like the scenary behind it, despite it being simple, open fields. Its outlines were discernible only by a vague distortion in the air. Its shape was roughly that of a large humanoid. Glowing red camera eyes peered, disembodied seemingly from midair. It was a robot and it was there no matter how bloody out of place it looked standing up straight in the middle of an empty grass plain  
  
"Okay partner, we need a decision. Fight or flight?" Khermon asked, craning his head as he hovered to look at the monster in the eye.  
  
---  
  
Meanwhile, Claria walked over a remarkably similar looking stretch of grassland, (wonder why) though she was completely unaware of this. Beside her, her partner digimon floated gently beside. The small creature looked for all the world like a fuzzy tennis ball that had had an unlucky encounter with the inside of a chimney and it was a fuzzy black poofball if not for the pair of ovular eyes. The sooty black ball left dark stains wherever it landed. Fortunately however, it seemed entirely capable of continued floating for indefinite duration.  
  
"Susumon, do you hear something?"  
  
The eyes of the black ball rolled up as it concentrated and then, it went into a vigorous bobbing up and down. Susumon's communication was limited to body language (some bodylanguage, its body was a sooty black ball with cartoony eyes) and the occasional meaningful sound. However, Claria had quickly figured out that she could understand Susumon on an instinctive level.  
  
"I wonder what it is…"  
  
---  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"  
  
Grass and air parted to make way for the fleeing pair as they ran for all they were worth and in Khermon's case, as loudly as was digimonly possible. Behind them, grass waved wildly before snapping and being crushed to the earth as a massive, near invisible entity chased them, its glowing mechanical eyes handing in the air.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"  
  
"God, Khermon. Do you have to scream every step of the way for the heck of it? Stop yelling, keep flying."  
  
"Plasma Bomb!"  
  
The two accelerated their pace some more as the glowing red ball launched in a ballistic arc high over them before landing just short of intended target and exploding in a massive ball of flame, vaporizing the grass. Thankfully, there was no immediate flashfire. Seico's digivice glowed brightly from inside his pocket.  
  
"Khermon digivolve to…"  
  
"Now that's interesting." Seico commented. Both them and their pursuer had stopped, the first in interest, the latter in cautious reconsideration of the situation. Meanwhile Khermon had grown a lot larger. Its wingspan greatly enlarged, perhaps ten-fold. Its massive talons enlarged in proportion to the body and now were tipped with glimmering talons. Soft feathers turned fully gray and stiffened.  
  
"…Ruhkmon!"  
  
Ruhkmon gave a flip of his much larger wings and launched into the air, somewhat ponderously lifting its now immense body. Nevertheless, the bird digimon gained altitude quickly. Seico pulled out his digivice and looked at the screen. It was displaying something now. Data apparently and with a few quick button pushes, he scrolled through the screens. Something was odd however. Rather than two blips on the digimon radar screen as there should've been, there were five… He switched back to digimon scanning.  
  
Ruhkmon, champion digimon  
  
Type: data  
  
1.3 Attacks: Ruhk Drop, Slate Feather  
  
Seico looked up at his partner in the sky and compared the image to the picture in the digivice. They were definitely the same. His partner had been a rookie level and had now changed to a champion level. Now. Their opponent was…  
  
Infilmon, champion digimon  
  
Type: ???  
  
1.4 Attacks: Plasma Bomb, Sunspot  
  
Fair enough, it too was a champion. That mean the fight ought to be fairly even. Ought to be…  
  
"Ruhk Drop!"  
  
Ruhkmon dove at high speed from the air, trading altitude for speed in a stoop dive. At the last second, Ruhkmon's body went a flat grayish tone, the entire bird turning to stone and dropping atop his enemy with massively increased weight. The blurred edges of Infilmon distorted and shifted back to normality and Ruhkmon struck the ground, tearing into the dirt.  
  
"Sunspot!"  
  
"Slate Wing."  
  
Ruhkmon's wing feathers stiffened to a rock of some type. For a moment, the wing and the large, glowing, rose colored flare raced for the giant bird's body. The wing made it first and with a few feathers breaking off, the sunspot was deflected.  
  
"Geez…" Ruhkmon muttered tensely as he quickly flapped up to avoid an exploding plasma bomb.  
  
"The radar thingy says two incoming-"  
  
"Plasma Bomb!"  
  
"Spine Smash!"  
  
Registering each other as a threat simultaneously, the two digimon's attacks collided, rocky body against glowing red plasma. Seico noted the newcomers. Tablogumon was a gigantic snake or worm made of rocky segments and covered in rocky spines, one per section on the back. The creature was a massive one, many meters from rounded snout to stubby tail and against that, its two beady black eyes looked very small.  
  
The second one was like a suit of knight's armor. Two green eyes viewed the battle from beneath the visor of the helmet. However, the suit was much larger than any man at some three meters tall. It was armed to the hilt with a large sword that it held with one hand and several other bladed weapons.  
  
Tablogumon, champion digimon  
  
Type: data  
  
Attacks: Spine Smash  
  
Bladesmon, champion digimon  
  
Type: data  
  
Attacks: Super Slash, Star Cleaver  
  
"Okay, with three champions, we have got to be winning this…whoever those other two are."  
  
Meanwhile, the two new arrivals were ignoring him and concentrating on fighting. Tablogumon's massive body coiled up into a ring and flew swiftly towards the approximate location of Infilmon and missed, driving rocky horns into the dirt.  
  
"Super Slash!"  
  
Miss! Infilmon leapt high into the air, the red eyes soaring up before letting loose a massive Plasma Bomb, hitting Tablogumon right in the body as it came for another spinning Spine Smash. The rock snake digimon fell off course, kicking up a cloud of dust. From out of that cloud, a big, rocky tail lashed out, catching Infilmon and knocking him down. The cloaked digimon recovered but not quick enough.  
  
"Star Cleaver!"  
  
The fast digimon's evasion was a hair too slow and suddenly, as if tearing through fabric, Bladesmon's chakram weapon sliced apart the distortions that covered Infilmon. The patch of scenery seemed to tear like cloth before coming apart in fragments of the background floating to the ground. With a shimmer, the cloak came down. A pile of rags on the floor indicated the remains of some sort of invisibility cloak that had been torn off Infilmon and of course Infilmon itself appeared. It was indeed robotic as Seico had guessed, large mechanical feet like some anime mecha. Its body seemed muscular in suggestion but it was rendered not in flesh, but in metal. Its upper body was oversized, as were the arms, which launched plasma and sunspot energy blasts. The growling noise Seico and Khermon earlier heard had been a growl indeed, coming from the speaker within the jaws. Twin red camera eyes glowed on the head, which was fashioned not unlike a human skull and even with no facial expressions, it was simple to tell the creature was not happy.  
  
"Spine Smash!"  
  
"Sunspot!"  
  
A bright flash erupted over the field, as if a nuke had just gone off over the horizon. However, it was just the disruption effect of the sunspot.  
  
"What the-" Tablogumon's startled exclamation came just as Infilmon jumped him from out of the light with a red mass of energy already forming in its hands. Tablogumon shattered into data.  
  
"Super Slash!"  
  
There was a harsh scream of metal on metal and then sound of exposed, whirring gears as the attack took off Infilmon's left forarm. Sweeping past and ignoring the pain, Infilmon slammed into Bladesmon, knocking him over.  
  
"Star Cleaver!" This time the attack, thrown upon hitting the ground, missed by a hair and would never make it back to its owner to rethrow. With a scream and an explosion of dissipated data, Bladesmon was destroyed under another plasma bomb.  
  
"Ruhk Drop!"  
  
Infilmon, suddenly reminded of its original opponent, looked up and fell to earth as a great deal of rock body fell on it, pinning it to the ground. The struggling immediately intensified however, as Infilmon, still not defeated, struggled to get up with Ruhkmon's talons holding onto its back and its remaining arm.  
  
"What the heck is with this thing? Am I fighting an ultimate?"  
  
"Infilmon…it says it's a champion level digimon! Same as you!"  
  
"What the hell kind of champion is this?!? What alignment?"  
  
"Doesn't say."  
  
"What do you mean it doesn't say?! What is it? Virus, data, vaccine?"  
  
"Three question marks. It doesn't say! I don't think it's any of them!"  
  
---  
  
"Come on, Susumon!" Claria shouted at the rather unenthusiastic looking ball of soot. "That's a human over there, we have to help!"  
  
The ball chittered frantically and shook in a negative reply.  
  
"You mean you can't fight like them?"  
  
Susumon dropped to the ground, indicating his absolute refusal to budge and inciting a sigh from Claria.  
  
"Oh well…"  
  
---  
  
"Ack!" Ruhkmon spat as Infilmon's remaining arm threw him off. Ruhkmon did not land, but rather flipped his wings to stay aloft in a low altitude flight while Infilmon rolled onto its feet and attacked once again.  
  
"Sunspot! Sunspot!"  
  
The shots flashed and struck trees, tearing them asunder but Ruhkmon had achieved enough speed. Swooping in low, the giant bird digimon's eyes found its enemy and aimed. The bird turned to rock at the last second to increase the inertia of the attack. There was a screech of rending metal, a cry from Infilmon and when Ruhkmon lifted off, a deep, new, exposing gash had appeared in the torso armor, revealing a throbbing red light within the interior.  
  
"Plasma-"  
  
"Ruhk Drop!" Flying in a loop, Ruhkmon flew in a loop and landed atop the digimon and at once, the defeated creature melted away to disappear into the ground, leaving an exhausted Khermon… 


End file.
